Lib Dems are Delivering for Sheffield

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 18th Aug 2008

Lib Dems are delivering for Sheffield

After only a short time in power the new Liberal Democrat Council is already delivering for Sheffield. Since the election in May Lib Dems have been working to try and ensure that local people can see a real difference with the Liberal Democrats in control. There has been action on a range of issues including protecting the environment, making local people feel safer, making the Council start to listen to local people, delivering basic services fairly for everyone and delivering better value for your money. Click here to find out all the things achieved by the Lib Dems so far.

Free Green Waste Sacks - We have made green waste sacks available for free in order to give local people better opportunities to recycle more. Under Labour, the cost of the sacks increased to £1 per sack. At the moment there are 200,000 bags available for free and a future decision on the initiatives on the long term price for the green waste sacks.

Protecting Local Parks - We have put a stop to Labour's unpopular plan to develop on part of Graves Park. We are working to come up with alternative sites to accommodate St Luke's Hospice so that local parks are protected and St Lukes can find a new home.

Extra Officers to make Sheffield Safer - We have committed nearly half a million pounds to employing an extra 15 Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs). These officers will be concerned with high visibility patrols under the service agreement we have with the Police. They will be spread around Sheffield so that every area receives a boost to Police numbers.

Commitment to tackling under performance in Education - One of the first commitments made by the Liberal Democrats was to address pupil attainment rates in Sheffield. Under Labour performance at Primary School and Secondary School level was way below the national average and amongst the worst in the country. We have outlined our commitment to tackling the issue, providing extra resources if necessary, focusing on raising aspirations and tackling poor school leadership.

Scrapping Labour's 'Favoured Areas' Policy - Basic services such as filling in potholes, repairing streetlights and clearing gullies will now be decided on a 'worst first' basis. Labour's favoured areas policy of awarding extra priority points if work is in one of their designated areas has been scrapped. Now basic council services will be carried out on a fair basis across Sheffield.

Providing a two school solution for Hillsborough - We came up with an option to keep Wisewood School open and deliver a new School on the Myers Grove site, a two school solution. We offered to provide the extra £25m of funding that was required. However, after lobbying from local Labour MPs, the Government threatened to withdraw £100m from other local schools if the closures didn't go ahead. Under threat of this blackmail the closures will now have to go ahead in order to protect the investment in other Sheffield schools.

Low as possible Council Tax - We have made a commitment to delivering a low as possible Council Tax, with a long term aim to work towards a 0% Council Tax increase in the future.

Ballots on Changes to School Status - We have introduced a system of balloting local parents on any proposal to turn their local school into an independent Academy. This will not only put local parents in the driving seat for education in their area, but it will also bring about greater engagement between local schools and the parents. We are also encouraging ballots for schools that are planning to become a trust school, which would also take the school out of local authority control.

'Driving Me Crazy' Review Transport Network - We have launched the 'Driving Me Crazy' campaign to try and eliminate annoying anomalies on the local transport network and alleviate congestion. People are able to log onto the Council website and report the problem, for example pointless one way systems, no right turns or badly timed traffic lights. Once they are collated we will them put them to the public and rectify the most popular.

Making Tram/Bus Gates clearer - We have attempted to clean up the mess made by Labour by installing much clearer signage and introducing a longer period of grace for Bus and Tram Gates. We have also been fair to motorists who have been unjustly fined in the past, due to the unclear signage put up under Labour, and offered them a refund.

Community Assemblies - We have started the process to implement our plans for 'Community Assemblies' across Sheffield. These will see real budgets and decisions handed down to local councillors and local communities. The first services to be rolled out will be street cleaning, libraries and parks. This will mean that local services can be shaped depending on the needs of the local community and local councillors will make real decisions and be held to account. They will replace the existing Area Panels and are due to go live in May 2009.

Tree Planting Initiative - We have provided funding to enable the planting of 5,000 extra trees across Sheffield. This is aimed at making Sheffield even more green and leafy.

Cleaning the Main Rivers - We have funded extra work to clean up our main rivers worth £140,000. Our rivers are still clogged up with debris as a result of the floods and lack of action from Labour. This new work will aim to get them clean as quickly as possible.

Extra Work to Tackle Graffiti - We have funded an extra team to deal with graffiti hotspots as well as making it easier for local people to report graffiti via the Council website. Local people can easily log on and report where the graffiti they want cleaning up is situated.

Biggest Ever Road and Street Sign Renewal - We have undertaken the biggest ever street and road signage renewal to replace and repair unsightly signage. There will be over £200,000 of extra investment for this. Again, local people can report what signage they want to be repaired/replaced through an easy to use system on the Council website.

Derek Dooley Way - We have re-named part of the Inner Relief Road 'Derek Dooley Way' in line with the wishes of local people and the Dooley family.

Free Books for School Starters - All Sheffield children starting school this year will receive a free book from the Council. This is in order to try and get our children into reading from an early age and, in the long term, provide better building blocks for learning. Along with this commitment, Cabinet members will be taking part in a voluntary reading scheme in which they will go into schools and provide one-to-one reading support to young people.

Recycling Bins in Shopping Areas - We are rolling out recycling bins across shopping areas outside of the city centre. These will help Sheffield's recycling efforts a little, but more importantly make people think about recycling more.

Buy Local policy - We are introducing a 'buy local' policy so that the Council works with local business to ensure that they are given a chance to competitively compete for contracts. Value for money requirements will still be met, but the Council will pro-actively think about the skills and products that local business can offer. Not only will this provide a boost for local business put it is also sustainable as it will cut down on the Council's carbon footprint.

Extra Recycling Trial - We will trial the use of a 'Green Cone' to recycle kitchen waste. This is a device that you place in your garden much like a composter. However, unlike a composter, you can dispose of cooked kitchen waste in it. 100 people will be selected to take part to see how successful the trial is in reducing the amount of waste going to landfill or incineration.