Herefordshire Labour News

Google Worldwide Competition Chooses Leominster as UK Finalist!

2012-04-05T11:51:00.002+01:00

Example of Tom Harvey Leominster Model

Google is sponsoring a world-wide competition called Model Your Town 2012. In this contest, people who make 3D models of buildings for Google Earth compete with collections of models showcasing their towns. The winner’s prize is a lot of publicity for the town and a $25,000 (about £16,000) contribution to a local school.

The Leominster collection of 3D models is one of five finalists in the contest, and the only UK representative; this is incredibly impressive and congratulations should go to Tom Harvey for getting this far!

As excitingly, the Westfield School Bubble Appeal has been nominated for the prize if Leominster wins.

Google are holding an on-line vote for your favourite town from 01 April 2012 to 01 May 2012.

Everybody in the world is eligible to vote, so we will need a lot of votes to win the prize for the school. Here’s what we need you to do:

· Go to this Google web site, follow the voting instructions and cast your vote for Leominster.

· Replace my name with your own at the bottom of this email and forward it to all your friends, neighbours and family members asking them to do the same.

· Feel free to add your own comments to the email if you think it will help.

The more votes we get for Leominster, the better is our chance to win the £16,000 for the Bubble Appeal!

Bidding to be a Portas Pilot

2012-04-04T14:03:00.000+01:00

Mary Portas undertook a review of the High Street for the current Lib-Dem led Coalition Government. One of the recommendations was that they pilot her recommendation. And so the Portas Pilot was born. It appears that not only did Hereford put in an application, but so did every market town in the county.

Labour Town Councillors in Leominster were active in bringing together the town's Portas Pilot, led by Philippa Roberts. Thanks to support from all parties, but particularly the greens in this instance, we pulled together what we hope will be a strong application. Best of all, (or worst, depending how you look at it), we had to create a video and upload it to youtube. So for all who are interested, please check out my first attempt at creating and editing a video here. Thanks to all the people of Leominster who took part. Good luck us!Portas Pilot video

Leominster Town Council ByElection

2012-03-01T21:21:00.000Z

Thursday 8 March is byelection day for Leominster Town Council, North Ward. Gerald Pardoe is standing as our candidate, and has been out working hard talking to people in the area.

If you want to help with leafleting or canvassing, please get in touch.

North Herefordshire CLP Annual Dinner

2012-01-12T18:28:00.001Z

Annual dinner on Friday 17 Feb 2012. Guest speakers will be Lord Jeff Rooker and Simon Murphy. All welcome, so please get in touch if you'd like to find out more.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-23T12:10:00.002Z

Best festive wishes to everyone! We'll all be taking a break over Christmas and the New Year, ready for a 2012 full of activity, including supporting our friends fighting vital elections in May across the region.

What an exciting year it's been. It felt like we had only just recovered from the General Election and we were out delivering the leaflets for the County and Town elections. Congratulations to our new town councillors and Chris Chappell for holding his seat in Hereford.

The year ended with the inspirational Hilary Benn MP coming to visit us for a winter picnic lunch and talk in December.

Here's wishing everyone a peaceful time with family and friends and good health in 2012.

Hilary Benn MP in Hereford - Sunday 11 December

2011-12-04T15:21:00.001Z

HEREFORD AND SOUTH HEREFORDSHIRE CONSTITUENCY LABOUR PARTY

Invite you to a ‘winter picnic’ meeting with

Hilary Benn MP

Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government

Sunday 11th Dec, lunchtime 12-2pm.

At The Railway Club, Barton Yard, Hereford HR4 0AZ (nr Sainsbury’s)

in the upstairs bar .

This is a open meeting organised by Hereford Labour Party .

The ‘Winter Picnic’ will be available at a cost of £5.00 a head but must be booked in advance (by the end of Nov.) Bar available.

Please book your lunch order with Marjorie Hardwicke on (01432) 343779.

Cheques made payable to Hereford and South Herefordshire Labour Party and sent to Marjorie at 145 Bullingham Lane, HEREFORD HR2 7RZ

We look forward to meeting you then.

Yours sincerely

Anna Coda

Chair,

Hereford CLP

Leominster School Christmas Carols

2011-12-01T07:03:00.000Z

Thanks to Leominster Priory for the wonderful Christmas service that was held on Saturday afternoon before the Christmas lights were turned on in the town.

All the local junior schools were represented, singing songs and dancing dances to tell the Christmas story. The Priory was packed and was standing room only. All-in-all it was an impressive event.

Highlight of the occasion for me was the start of the service. The Mayor, Cllr Eddie Clarke, three wise men (or women! - Cllrs Molly Cook and Emma Pardoe and the Town Clerk) and a donkey. All being led by Mary and Joseph (Kelly and Callum).

I'm afraid I've blurred Mary and Joseph in the photo as I don't know their surnames so don't have permission to put their images up on here, but they did a great job and were very impressive when they turned on the Christmas lights later. As you can see from the photo, there might not have been any room at the inn, so they were headed for the Youth Hostel!

County Party meeting tonight

2011-11-17T15:31:00.001Z

7.30pm in Leominster.

Fair Pay and Pensions in the Public Sector

2011-09-23T20:44:00.000+01:00

Thursday 29^th September.

Open meeting to discuss fair pay and pensions in the public sector.

· What is fair pay?

· Who should bear the brunt of the cuts?

· Are public sector pensions gold-plated?

· What are the unions doing about this – nationally and locally?

· What do you think should be done?

Speaker confirmed from Unison and invited from GMB and Unite.

Hot and cold drinks and light refreshments available.

7.30pm meeting starts.

The railway club, Hereford. Hr4 0az

(opposite sainsbury’s petrol station.)

Leominster Parking Charges

2011-08-26T12:26:00.004+01:00

The press release below is from Herefordshire Council. Comment on this press release can be found in the opinion section.

"Car parking charges to rise for first time in three years"

Herefordshire Council is to raise car parking in Leominster for the first time in three years but free car parking will still be available in the Etnam Street car park and in the Central Area.

There will be free parking after 6pm and on Bank Holidays but charges will be introduced for Sunday parking, in line with neighbouring authorities.

Parking on a Sunday will be free in Etnam Street and the Central Area and will be capped at £2 for all other council-owned car parks.

Councillor Adrian Blackshaw, Herefordshire Council’s cabinet member for highways, transportation and waste, said: “People using car parks in Leominster have paid the same prices for the past three years despite rising inflation and the increase in VAT from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent.

“We need to raise charges so we can continue to maintain the car parks to a high standard as well as ensuring we can cope with budgetary pressures following the Government’s reduction in funding.

“The fact people can still park all day in Leominster for £1 is incredible value for money when compared with neighbouring towns such as Ludlow where it could be £4.80 in Ludlow and £3 in Tenbury Wells.

“We realise car parks are vital to the vitality of the town and have kept the increases to a reasonable level as well as keeping evenings and Bank Holidays free. We have also kept the short-stay parking in the central area free of charge as this means more spaces will be available for people needing to access town centre shops and services,” he added.

The new charges will be advertised prior to coming into effect on November 1, 2011."

Ed Miliband Speech

2011-08-15T14:59:00.001+01:00

Link to Ed Miliband's speech today in response to the riots.

Vote Barbara Frankham on Thursday July 28

2011-07-27T17:41:00.004+01:00

Barbara Frankham is the Labour Party candidate for the election tomorrow, July 28, for the St Martins and Hinton ward.

Barbara says: "I started working at Full House, a registered charity in Holme Lacy, as a volunteer in 1995. Since then I have experienced all aspects of the work and am now the manager. I am also a UK Trustee for the Sumatran Orangutan Society, which I have been doing this since 2001."

"In the course of the day I meet many people from all walks of life, from those that can and those that cannot afford to make ends meet. I feel able to communicate with all these people and want to help in whatever way I can, which is why I am standing as a Labour candidate in these county council elections."

City bonuses average £12,500

2011-07-19T17:33:00.003+01:00

City bonuses totalling £14 billion were paid last year, a fall on the high levels from before the crash but the same as last year. This is an average of £12,500 per employee.

Average salaries in England are £25,812.

County Council Wants To Increase Parking Charges

2011-06-29T12:56:00.001+01:00

Herefordshire County Council is debating whether or not to raise parking charges above inflation and at the time reduce the subsidy for school transport.

Labour is people's voice in tough times

2011-05-05T17:11:00.002+01:00

In this election, Labour has been campaigning to be people’s voice in tough times.

Today is a chance for voters to deliver a verdict on this Conservative-led Government and its Liberal Democrat allies. They have no mandate for the right-wing, badly thought-through policies they are pursuing.

Tonight we will start to see the results of these elections. The question now is whether David Cameron and Nick Clegg will show they can listen. We need a change of direction not business as usual.

Labour is people’s voice in tough times

We are the party which is talking about how to tackle the big long term challenges facing Britain:

The crisis in living standards for middle income families.

How to ensure that the next generation can do better than the last.

The need to strengthening our communities

We are the party which people are moving towards

More than 50,000 new members.

More candidates across England – over 11% more wards with Labour candidates, including areas in the South like Witney in Oxfordshire and Maidenhead and Windsor.

Today is a chance for voters to deliver a verdict on this Conservative-led Government and its Liberal Democrat allies

David Cameron has no mandate for policies they never told voters about and which could not be implemented without Nick Clegg’s enthusiastic support:

Frontloaded local government cuts that go too far and too fast.

A top down re-organisation of the NHS costing billions.

A trebling of tuition fees.

We need a change of direction, not business as usual

Nick Clegg’s new strategy is to make more shows of public dissent, matched only by his private obedience for a string of broken promises. Sham outrage and shambolic government will fool nobody.

David Cameron is preparing to offer another promise of a patched-up partnership, to conceal his failure a majority at the last election.

This coalition can’t deliver for the people of Britain because it is based on power, not principle.

Rob Flello MP visits Hereford

2011-04-21T18:17:00.003+01:00

Thanks go to Rob Flello MP, a Shadow Justice Minister, for taking time to come and visit Labour's campaigners and candidates in Hereford.

He visited on Monday with David Hallam who used to be the Labour MEP for the area. They met with campaigners and candidates at the Hinton Community Centre to talk about what's been happening in St Martins. Rob then took the time to stop by at the Wye Amateur Boxing Club who were running a drop-in session for young people that afternoon. Vince and Richard explained about the impressive young people they have at the club and the recent fundraising event they ran at Point 4.

We all then popped over to the Kindle Centre where Lara gave Rob a guided tour before he headed back up to Stoke.

Candidate details

2011-04-18T16:14:00.000+01:00

We have uploaded photographs and statements from our election candidates which can be read here.

Forthcoming election candidates

2011-04-12T12:22:00.003+01:00

Herefordshire Labour Party is pleased to announce that it is fielding county council candidates in Hereford, Leominster, Ledbury and Bromyard as well as a number of rural wards.

14 candidates are standing for the county council elections on May 5, along with a further 8 Labour candidates for Leominster Town Council. Full details of all candidates can be found on this website shortly.

Join us to march for women

2011-03-21T15:03:00.001Z

Harriet Harman and other women MPs will be going with women and marching together to make our voices heard, against the Tory government's unfair actions which are hitting women hardest.

Women are hit harder by the cuts in the pension credit, working tax credit, child care support and the cuts in the public sector. In total six billion pounds a year is being being taken from direct support for children, including reductions in child tax credit, child benefit and the child trust fund.

Cutting jobs for women and support for families is bad for the economy, increases child poverty and will end up costing the UK more.

Celebrating Councillor Attfield

2011-03-18T12:24:00.003Z

On Friday March 11th Hereford and South Herefordshire Labour Party hosted a successful dinner to celebrate the work of Councillor Ursula Attfield, who is retiring at the local elections this year. She is a long standing member of the Labour Party and most recently has represented the St. Martins and Hinton ward.

Around 60 members and friends met at the Railway club in Hereford to enjoy a buffet supper and to pay tribute to her work. Tributes were paid by her daughter, Amanda who amused us all with anecdotes from her childhood as the child of a local politician - especially the compulsory volunteering of delivering leaflets and letters.

This was followed by speeches of Ursula's adventures over the years from fellow councillor Chris Chappell, The Mayor of Hereford Councillor Anna Toon, and the chair of the local Labour Party Tim Brown. Tribute was paid to her hard work, her dedication and her passion for doing her best for the people of Hereford.

Councillors representing other parties on the city council were also present. At the end of the evening Councillor Attfield was presented with a merit award from the national Labour Party in recognition of her outstanding work.

Thanks go to the hardworking volunteers for organising and catering for this event.

Tories and Lib Dems Critical of NHS Bill

2011-03-16T18:40:00.003Z

Tory MPs have signed a cross-party motion asking Ministers to listen to the concerns of patients groups, professional bodies and independent experts when it comes to NHS reform. This comes in the form of an amendment to a Labour motion that has been debated in the Commons today.

This follows the BMA's vote earlier this week asking Andrew Lansley to withdraw the reform bill.

David Cameron continues to support the reforms.

John Spellar MP at the 6th Form College. 4 Feb 2011

2011-02-04T18:23:00.005Z

John Spellar MP came to visit Hereford today from his Warley Constituency. He spent over an hour with local party members at the Kindle Centre, discussing politics in general. We covered issues such as support for trade unions, political apathy, the cuts to the health service and education and how to make a difference in the county.

A quick dash up to the 6th Form College found us standing in front of an empty room. Luckily it was a time-keeping problem and around 60 students turned up to hear John talk about tuition fees and the EMA. The question session afterwards ran overtime and there were still things left unanswered. There seemed to be a split of opinion about the EMA, with fairness being the overriding issue; some deserving people had missed out while some from wealthy backgrounds where getting it. This was linked to the access fund, and the question asked about whether an increase in this fund counter-balanced the loss of the EMA.

Other questions were on a wider range of issues and included the instability of debt, wealth distribution and the Robin Hood Tax.

The point that was made at the end of the meeting about how to make a difference to these debates was simple - get involved and make sure you are registered to vote.

West Mercia Police Getting the Worst Deal from Cuts

2011-01-27T18:08:00.004Z

Today's Guardian has reported that the number of police officers in England and Wales has dropped by more than 2,500 in the past year, as a result of the recruitment freezes in place across the country's forces.

This is the first significant fall in police numbers after a decade of growth.

The largest percentage fall in officers were in the smallest forces, with West Mercia recording the greatest in percentage terms. -5.8%.

Vernon Coaker MP, Labour's Shadow Policing Minister, responding to the Police Service Strength statistics released by the Home Office today, said:

"These figures highlight what we already knew - that choices being made by this Tory-led Government mean cuts to police numbers across the country. We committed to protect frontline policing in our manifesto but this Conservative-led Government seems to be intent on seeing fewer police officers tackling crime and anti-social behaviour on our streets. Our big worry is that this is only the start of what could become much worse news on police numbers."

Policy and manifesto

2010-12-01T12:20:00.005Z

Herefordshire County Council elections will take place in May 2011. We have been working since the summer on developing the policies that will go into our manifesto.

The process began at our Summer School in Hereford where we discussed transport policy and issues and has continued through meetings open to members on Education and the government's cuts agenda. All members should now have received a summary of these discussions to comment on, as they will form the basis of our manifesto. Comments can be sent for another week yet and then over the Christmas period a team of 4 of us, 2 from each constituency, will collate these to form a draft manifesto.

Now is an exciting time for policy development. Ed Miliband has said that we have a blank slate and that our policies in every department are being reconsidered. Work that we do here in Herefordshire, and issues that we feel are important, can be fed into this national process, so I would really encourage people to get in touch.

Although our manifesto will be ready for campaigning in February, these policy conversation will continue. Life and politics are ever-changing and how we propose to make a difference, based on our common values, will also change to reflect this. The consequences of the coalition's plans will be felt for years to come and we have to be comfortable responding to that.

If you have suggestions for areas of discussion, again, do let me know and we can try and arrange events where we talk about this. North Herefordshire had a lovely dinner with Michael Cashman the other week, so I would welcome suggestions about what else we can do.

Philippa

Welcome to the site

2010-11-27T19:57:00.000Z

Welcome to the new Herefordshire Labour website - a place where you can find out more about what we are doing in the two constituencies and how you can join in with our campaigns.

Herefordshire County will be electing its councillors in May 2011. We will shortly be opening our applications for candidates, details are being sent to all members shortly. If you've got time, energy, good ideas or enthusiasm, then get in touch and come and join us.