This is the headline manifesto, there are supporting documents and policy detail sitting behind these pledges, and contextual information about the current situation, however, I dont have the text for that here.
Labour’s vision for Liverpool 2008
A Location for Learning & Achievement
We want every child to have the right skills and knowledge to fulfil their potential free from the effects of poverty and we will build a youth service fit for the 21st Century.
• We will focus relentlessly on achievement with more pupils achieving 5 good GCSEs (grades A*- C including English and Maths), all schools achieving consistently high Contextual Value Added (CVA) scores, reduced truancy levels and more schools judged to be good or better by OFSTED.
• We will build new state-of-the art secondary schools and refurbish existing schools through Building Schools for the Future.
• We will support schools to be centres of their community by extending opportunities to children outside the normal school day.
• We will set up a new multi-agency Child Poverty Unit that will agree and oversee action to tackle the impact of child poverty in Liverpool.
• We will respond to the needs of children with disabilities and special educational needs and their families and carers.
• We will provide long-term funding for quality youth provision based on the needs of our young people and their communities.
A City Which Creates & Shares Prosperity
We will work hand in hand with business to bring more jobs to all parts of Liverpool. We will promote jobs for local people in everything we do.
• We will use our year as European Capital of Culture as a catalyst for rejuvenating our culturally diverse communities and to build a legacy post 2008.
• We will support and promote Liverpool’s heritage, art, culture and tourism post 2008.
• We will improve support for inward investment and entrepreneurship to create the jobs of the future and encourage small and medium sized enterprises and micro enterprises to expand and employ more local people.
• We will expand the use of planning gain to invest in the city’s social infrastructure, improve skills and secure community benefits.
• We will increase apprenticeships and training for skills geared towards future market needs.
• We will develop the one-stop shop for the private/business sector.
• We will work closely with Trade Unions to ensure best practice terms and conditions are secured for Liverpool workers and will engage in a “living wage” campaign.
Building Decent Homes
We want every home in Liverpool to be a decent home. We will deliver more homes for rent and more affordable homes in mixed, sustainable neighbourhoods.
• We will deliver 8000 homes for rent/shared ownership in the next eight years.
• We will facilitate people to be able to take derelict homes and bring them back into use.
• We will work towards ensuring all newly built homes are carbon and water neutral where possible. New homes should be life-time homes.
• We will limit the growth of buy-to-let apartments where they undermine Housing Market Renewal.
• We will introduce a Local Allocations Policy giving local people an influence on who is housed in their area.
• We will use the power to introduce selective licensing where private landlords are contributing to housing market failure and anti-social behaviour by mismanaging tenancies.
A Stronger, Safer Liverpool
We will crack down on anti-social behaviour using the tough powers given to councils.
• We will deliver strong and co-ordinated action to prevent young people from getting caught up in gun and gang culture, drugs, crime and anti-social behaviour.
• We will be tough on anti-social behaviour making full use of ASBOs and ABCs and we will use the planning framework to design out crime in our neighbourhoods.
• We will work with the police, licensing authority and primary care trust to crack down on under age drinking.
• We will ensure that youth workers are on the streets on Friday and Saturday nights to work with young people who are drinking alcohol.
Responsible Finances
We will transform Liverpool from being the lowest performing council in the country to being a well run financially stable authority which balances the need to keep council tax low and provide high quality services.
• We will consult widely on the council tax rate and priorities for spending and keep spending within available resources and focused on those priorities.
• We will strive to offer best value, cut out waste and lower costs on a permanent basis.
• We will strive to maximise grant income
A Cleaner, Greener Liverpool
We will bring in a step change in recycling with weekly collection of rubbish and we will crack down on environmental crime like litter, graffiti and flytipping.
• We will aim to make Liverpool one of the greenest core city authorities, by making kerbside recycling available to all homes and encouraging more people to recycle.
• We will become a role model for other big cities in cracking down on environmental crime, ensuring that resources are targeted at areas of greatest need.
• We will work with the community to make our parks cleaner and safer for all residents to use and enjoy. We will introduce park wardens.
• We will develop and enhance the dog warden team so that they can concentrate on finding stray dogs and enforcing dog fouling legislation.
• We will encourage local businesses to assess their carbon footprint and introduce measures to limit their energy consumption.
A Healthy Place to Live, Work & Play
We will use the Council’s well being powers to enhance the life chances for the people of Liverpool so that they live longer, healthier and happier lives.
• We will stop the closure of our care homes and day centres and we will create Centres of Excellence at each, specialising in individual aspects of elderly care.
• We will increase the number of people who receive help to allow them to remain living independently in their own homes.
• We will build on Government initiatives to improve sport and leisure activities to promote healthy living and access for all.
• We will increase spending on welfare rights for older people to maximise benefit entitlements.
• We will support projects designed to ensure a better work/life balance for parents with young families.
Empowering Communities
We will devolve power and spending away from the Town Hall down to neighbourhoods.
• We will devolve a significant element of the Working Neighbourhoods budget and other sources of funding to ward councillors to ensure that local priorities are met and community cohesion enhanced.
• We will strengthen and deepen Neighbourhood Area Agreements so that more power is rooted locally.
• We will consult widely on budget setting to involve business, the voluntary sector, community groups and other stakeholders.
• We will promote the delivery of street services by social enterprise, employing local people accountable to residents.
• We will integrate the network of One Stop Shops with Neighbourhood Services Teams providing a comprehensive facility for local people.
• We will ensure that all contracts and commitments to joint ventures are subject to rigorous independent audit and a public scrutiny process.
11 comments:
(scouseboy)I am particuly pleased with the commitment to divolve bugets to the wards. That way, ALL the city will benefit, not just the leafy, affluent South End as currently practiced by the fib dems.
Louise, we would be interested to learn how Labour would pay for all of this given they were incapable of drawing up an opposition budget. WE would also like to see a list of the so-called businessmen who donate to Liverpool Labour funds, especially those who are linked to crime within the city...funnily enough most of them also happen to be linked very closely with Cllr Anderson!
The above post just took the words out of my mouth.
The manifesto (if it really is such a thing) could have been written on the back of a postage stamp. It's populist 'baldocks' at it's very worst.
I have no idea what the comment about criminal business men donating to Labour is all about. I dont know who donates to Labour either but I expect the information is publicly available somewhere. What an odd comment.
As to our manifesto being written on the back of a postage stamp, that is another odd comment. That expression means that something is very short, as there is not much room on the back of a postage stamp. This however covered six pages of A4.
And of course it is a manifesto, it is the Labour Party manifesto, what do you mean by "if it really is such a thing?"
I am sorry you think that tackling child poverty is populist, or that a local labour strategy is populist, or that an increased number of dog wardens to tackle the serious fouling problem is populist.
I call them very serious issues.
I look forward to reading the LibDem manifesto in due course - although I can imagine what it will say - something about privatising social services altogether, making sure that the streets are kept clean in the middle-class areas at the expense of the working-class areas and blaming someone else for all your own short-comings. Those would be three of the pledges.
If you are unaware of the donations from criminals...ask cllr anderson, he knows them all too well!
I do wish people when they make rash accusations about the labour party being funded by criminals would use their real names and stop hiding behind anonimity
Whereas I wish that these very blokey and aggressive men would stop commenting on each other's personal apprearance.
I could talk about how dirty Frank Doran's nails always are, or talk about Little Lord Fauntleroy in Picton or how much one particular councillor looks like a 1970s porn star (allegedly, how would I know?) but frankly it wouldnt really be me, it would just be repeating and reinforcing other people's comments that I have picked up.
So, why dont we all concentrate on the detail and leave the personal wise cracks to the professionals?
If the worst thing you can say about Joe is that he is not traditionally handsome then frankly you must be clutching at straws.
John Smith was not traditionally handsome but he was universally admired, whereas Michael Heseltine was reckoned to be a bit of pin-up but we would not have given him house-room in this city.
I suggest you raise your game somewhat, you anonymous LibDems, or risk becoming increasingly irrelevant and out of step with the population.
No, Louise, I suggest that you raise your own game somewhat. Apart from copying your Leaders remarks about other Councillors, you've actually made a huge mistake in publishing them on your blog site, thereby opening yourself up to charges of gross defamation which could [and should] result in you being reported to the Standards Board by a number of different individuals. My advice is "Don't start anything you can't finish".
Gross defamation?
Don't be silly.
It is interesting that someone who threatens "gross defamation" feels at liberty to throw up accusations against Labour party people. I assume this person is also thick enough to believe that they are posting anonymously on this site?
Yes, but we all know who it is. And I am not worrying about him too much, he will be out of office on May 2nd if I have anything to do with it, the annoying little sod.
I dont know who he thinks I have defamed, I deliberately didnt name names.
As to the Standards Board complaint, last time the LibDems complained to them about my blog they wrote back saying it was clearly personal and not done as an official council blog, that it was satirical in nature and that I let people respond critically, so they weren't bothered.
Let them write their petty letters. I shall concentrate on winning elections.
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