Leicestershire Liberal Democrats

Information seen by the Liberal Democrats has uncovered further scandal within Leicestershire Tories. Following investigations into Mr Sprason's scurrilous attack on Liberal Democrats at the 18^th April special Council Meeting, show that Mr Sprason has misled Council.

In a detailed letter received from the County Council after a request for information, it is clear that Mr Sprason joined discredited Leader Mr Parsons in his luxury chauffeur driven car to attend a Cecil Club Dinner widely believed to have been a Conservative Party fundraiser.

Lib Dems have persuaded the Tory controlled County Council to undertake a massive u-turn and defer a flagship budget cut to Home to School Transport. Under the proposals students faced massive changes to transport entitlements and some faced fees of over £400 per year. If entitlement changes were agreed this would have restricted transport to nearest available school even if that school was over the County boundary.

This is what we have submitted to the Cabinet for today's (8th May) meeting on the issue of Chnages to Home to School Transport.

Paper C: Changes to Home to School Transport

The Liberal Democrat group requests Cabinet not to proceed with the proposals to change home to school transport entitlement and increase charges for Post 16 students.

Lib Dems have reacted with anger to the news that the Tory Administration at County Hall is to press ahead with huge increases in charges for school transport and the removal of all travel concessions except those they have to provide by law, despite strong opposition expressed during the recent public consultation exercise.

Ahead of the emergency meeting of the County Council tomorrow, the Liberal Democrat opposition group on Leicestershire County Council has been taking a detailed look at the reams of expense claims made by Tory Leader David Parsons which were released under a FOI a few weeks ago.

It continues to be the case, that with such a large majority, the decision on whether to take any action will be for the Tories to decide. The question remains whether they wish to condone his actions or support the opposition motion to remove him. The reality of Mr Parsons expenses will not go away and putting their heads in the sand will resolve nothing more than to prove how ineffective they are as a group.

Leicestershire County Council is currently consulting on proposals to reduce or cut public transport in Leicestershire for students, the disabled and the elderly, which could go ahead if too few people respond to the Consultation, according to the opposition Liberal Democrat group.

Lib Dem Leader Simon Galton said: "The old phrase 'use it or lose it' springs to mind here. If people don't respond, the Tories will use it as a green light to cut support for student transport and travel for the elderly. If implemented, all non statutory travel concessions provided by the council for many years will be removed including taxi tokens for people in rural areas without access to a bus service."

Over 20 million working people will be better off next year after Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government delivered the biggest ever increase in the income tax personal allowance in the Budget.

The massive £3.5bn tax cut for working people delivers:

• The biggest ever single uplift in the tax threshold
• A personal allowance of £9,205 in April 2013
• 21 million working people getting an extra £220 tax cut
• Brings the total tax cut for basic rate tax payers to £550
• Brings the total number of people lifted out of tax to 2 million.

Liberal Democrats will be moving a motion on Wednesday calling on the three party leaders to send a letter to the Secretary of State for Education about the financial impact of academies on local services to Leicestershire residents.

Simon Galton, Leader of the Liberal Democrats has pointed out that Conservative voted against a Lib Dem Motion on academies back in 2010 which predicted most of what has recently happened. This new motion calls on the government to change the unfair funding formula that results in Leicestershire pupils receiving less money per head than other areas.

Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg used his speech to the Party's Spring conference in NewcastleGateshead to call for the forthcoming budget to be a "budget for fairness" and pledged that it would help working familes.

The Deputy Prime Minister pledged that by 2015 Britain would have seen an end to control orders, the first gay marriages and the first elections to the House of Lords.

Fairer taxes, promoting green jobs, protecting your civil liberties - these are just some of the achievements of the Liberal Democrats in government.

We're building a freer, greener and more liberal country - and stopping some of the worst excesses of the Conservatives. Find out more in this infographic.