The decision by the Conservative-led council to spend over £100,000 on beach barbecues has been slammed in the national press. The scheme has been challenged by local people from the start; our local Lib Dem councillors have argued that such a large sum of money could be better invested elsewhere. 

A staggering 24% of BCP residents worry about the cost of food. The rising cost of living is a crisis that affects so many people across the UK and South West.  BCP has been ranked the UK's 3rd highest council area for those struggling to afford food shopping. This is the result of the pandemic and a lack of government and council support for those hardest hit.

Marion, Mark and Millie are keen to set up a Community Speed Watch Scheme for Newtown & Heatherlands.

With the vast majority of the ward being 20mph, yet us all witnessing excessive speeds in residential roads, we want to take action on speeding and dangerous driving to promote community safety and deter poor behaviour on our roads.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for an extension of the Government’s furlough scheme until the jobs market is “ready to bounce back” in the wake of “staggering job losses” across the country. 

With 5.8% of people now relying on Universal Credit in Poole, the Party claims that extending furlough would help “stop this crisis getting even worse” and protect jobs for the future. 

The Liberal Democrats are calling for EU citizens to be given the automatic right to stay in the UK, as new official figures show 11,360 EU nationals living in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council area have not been granted permanent Settled Status to remain in the UK.

The Liberal Democrats are urging the Government to extend income support for self-employed workers after they declared victory in convincing the Government to extend furlough payments for employees, preventing redundancies.

Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey, who is asking the public to join his campaign to protect workers, warned "taxi drivers, hairdressers, cleaners, childcare providers and millions of other self-employed people are still not getting the help they need."

The call comes after the Chancellor annouced the Job Retention Scheme, currently covering nearly a quarter of UK jobs, will continue to October with employees receiving 80% of their monthly wages up to £2,500.

The Liberal Democrats are at the forefront of cross party calls for urgent additional funding for local authorities going “above and beyond” in their response to the COVID-19 crisis. 

The Liberal Democrats have launched a campaign to protect furloughed workers and their families with proposals to continue furlough payments when lockdown measures are eased, preventing redundancies.

Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey, who is asking the public to join his campaign to protect furloughed workers, said his party's plans would give people "that time and that confidence and help avoid further large-scale job losses."

Brexit is making the staffing crisis at Poole Hospital even worse, the Liberal Democrats have warned.

Figures published by the Liberal Democrats reveal that 66 EU staff working at Poole Hospital have already left the health service this year including 24 nurses and midwives. 

The Conservative Governments' funding cuts to the NHS have directly led to plans to downgrade Poole Hospital’s “Highly-Rated” A&E services and the closure of the maternity unit in Poole, at a time when have been shown to treat record numbers of patients. This is an absolute travesty, and we must continue to fight to stop that downgrade, protect Poole Hospital and the NHS.