14 Evening Post, Monday, October 5, 2009
uk
NEWSBRIEF
Historian’s
rail book
CAST your minds back
to help a historian uncov-
er Preston’s railway his-
tory.
Historian Robert
Gregson, of Grange-
Over-Sands, is writing a
book on the Lancashire
and Yorkshire Railway
in Preston.
The book is nearing
completion but he is
missing information
about the former Todd
Lane Junction which was
located half way between
Bamber Bridge and Pre-
ston. It closed in the
1960s and Mr Gregson
would like to hear from
former railway workers
as well as anyone who
might have photographs
of the station.
If you think you can
help email Mr Gregson
at meridian.transit@bt-
internet.com
Spooky stars
of the stage
BUDDING spooky stars
of the stage are invited to
audition for a Hal-
lowe’en play.
The Dark Mystery
Theatre Company will be
holding auditions for
mystery play, which has
been written by the the-
atre members.
The play is due to be
performed across Pre-
ston, Chorley and Black-
pool and auditions will
take place at 7.30pm on
Thursday October 8, at
St Wilfred’s Church Hall,
in Chapel Street, Pre-
ston.
For more information
call 07908016660.
Bird feeder
workshop
A WORKSHOP for resi-
dents who want to make
a winter feeder for birds
will be held in Preston
this month.
The event takes place
at Grange Park, Mitton
Drive, Preston, on Octo-
ber 24.
The event runs from
1pm to 2pm and there
will be a small charge for
the materials. For more
information, call 01772
906471.
Bric-a-brac
market start
AN antique and bric-a-
brac market is to start
later this month.
It will be held on the
old fish market, just off
Earl Street, Preston.
Starts on Saturday, Octo-
ber 17 and every Satur-
day thereafter until
Christmas.
The event starts at 9am
and runs to 3pm. Stalls
are £10 each.
Call 01772 906048 for
more information.
100 days
in the
corridors
of power
“WE didn’t make
promises just to get
elected. The promises
we have made, we will
keep.”
That was the vow made by
Conservative group leader
Coun Geoff Driver after his
party won an overwhelming
victory to seize control of
County Hall from Labour
back in June.
Now, after 100 days since
taking office on June 25, Coun
Driver is adamant he is stick-
ing to “promises” made before
the election. They include re-
versing Labour policies such as
removing night care staff from
care homes and axeing servic-
es in respite care for disabled
children. The Tories have also
This is a four-year project
and we are not going to
impact on 28
years of
Labour
manage-
ment in
100 days –
but I feel that my col-
leagues and I have made
significant changes.
Conservative group leader
Coun Geoff Driver
pumped £9m into highways
and £5m to help protect vul-
nerable children .
The Preston North repre-
sentative says: “This is a four-
year project and we are not
going to impact on 28 years of
Labour management in 100
days – but I feel that my col-
leagues and I have made sig-
nificant changes.
“We are trying to change the
culture of the county council:
the mantra we have is Lan-
cashire County Council exists
for one purpose and one pur-
pose only and that’s to serve
the people of Lancashire and
that’s what we are going to do.”
IT has been 100 days since the Conservatives made a
historic return to office at County Hall after 28 long
years. Reporter CHRIS VISSER investigates what
the Tories have achieved so far.
Perhaps the biggest “prom-
ise” was to freeze council tax
next year which Coun Driver
won approval for at council last
month.
But it has brought criticism
from opposition parties fear-
ing the county could be
plagued by cutbacks and debt
to service it.
Labour group leader Coun
Jennifer Mein says: “They are
not telling people they are al-
ready asking directorates for
10% cuts across the board. It’s
horrendous to think they will
borrow this year in order to
fund the council tax. We know
there’s massive things in the fu-
ture such as the waste scheme
to pay for.”
But Coun Driver says: “The
council tax has doubled since
1997 – it takes the average
Lancastrian a month working
to pay his or her council tax. In
1997, it was just two weeks. We
cut our suit according to our
cloth.”
Talking of borrowing and
cuts, he says: “We are not
mortgaging the county coun-
cil’s future – we are not bor-
rowing for revenue purposes.
We guarantee we will not cut
the front-line services.”
Council documents show the
authority will be borrowing
£40m to pay for its capital pro-
gramme over the next three
years and needs up to £10m
extra cash for highways and
voluntary sector projects.
Around £4m of the extra
highways cash will go on “pri-
ority road schemes” yet to be
announced and administered
centrally and another £5m will
be decided locally at Lan-
They have cre-
ated havoc –
staff morale
is at an all-
time low.
Labour group
leader Coun
Jennifer
Mein
cashire-Local groups.
Senior officers have also
warned that, with Government
grant cuts set to reduce, the au-
thority may need to find extra
funds of between £79m to
£142m in the next five years -
£16m of that must come from
next year’s finances.
Coun Driver has started to
find that cash by announcing
the county council’s £20m Hub
contact centre in Fulwood will
close. Around 300 staff at the
site, which only opened in
2005, are set to move.
And he has also gone
ahead with a plan set to save
£1.3m which could see one
in five vacancies frozen. He
says the plan would also see
the authority transferring
staff within the authority to
“more important” jobs carry-
ing “the highest priority”.
The Conservative leader has
also cut editions of the coun-
cil’s Vision magazine newslet-
ter so only two are produced
each year, saving in the region
of £300,000-a-year. He also
oversaw a redesign of the au-
thority’s logo claimed to save
£17,500-a-year transforming it
into a “Tudor rose” using
fewer colours and it now looks
less like the “Labour red rose”.
And there have been a range
of other announcements made
– not least, to reverse previous
Labour budget proposals in-
cluding pumping £227,000 into
adding an extra night care as-
sistant in the county’s 17 care
homes, £100,000 so CDs and
DVDs will now be purchased
again in libraries, £87,000 to
put back axed subsidies for bus
routes and £150,000 to rein-
state respite care for carers of
disabled children.
He has also scrapped a cli-
mate change fund on offer to
enivronmentally-conscious
community groups to provide
£250,000 extra cash to clean
roadside gullies to counter
flood risk which has attracted
criticism from green groups.
A previous promise to cre-
ate £5m in extra funding to cre-
ate a fund aimed at protecting
I don’t think they have
achieved anything of
greatness.
Obviously they are
just get-
ting their
feet under
the table.
Lib Dem group leader
Coun Charlie Briggs
vulnerable and looked-after
children will also go ahead and
£1m will be offered to faith and
voluntary groups to adapt
premises to be used by young
people.
A further £150,000 will go to
pay for three new trading stan-
dards officers.
But Coun. Driver has admit-
ted, however that “difficult de-
cisions will have to be made”
in the future
lep.co.
THE KEY
DECISIONS
● Freezing increase in
council tax for 2011/12
● Replacing the old county
council logo - saving
£17,500-a-year
● Reducing Vision maga-
zine from 10 to two edi-
tions - saving around
£292,000-a-year
● Examining a 10% cut
across council directorates
● Freezing one in five new
vacancies and examining
all new positions
● A £5m fund to protect
vulnerable children and im-
prove the lives of looked-
after children
● Around £150,000 to im-
prove respite care for car-
ers of disabled children
● Scrapping the climate
change fund to provide
£250,000 for cleaning of
roadside gullies to reduce
the risk of floods
● Around £100,000 to re-
instate CD and DVD stocks
to libraries
● Reversing plans to cut
night care assistants in
care homes for older people
costing £227,000
● A £87,000 payment to
support subsidised school
bus services
● An extra £150,000 to
fund three additional trad-
ing standards officers to
tackle loan sharks and
sales of alcohol to under-
age drinkers
● A one-off investment of
£9m capital in highways
● A £1m fund for faith and
voluntary groups can adapt
premises for use by young
people
● Cutting full-time council-
paid Unison staff from
seven to four, with at least
another two to go in 2010
● Closing the Hub in Ful-
wood aimed at saving
£600,000 a year