Empowerment of Communities

Communities with a heart

This can be the local school, the main shopping streets, the community centres or the parks and green spaces. In too many parts of our city these are either not present or neglected. The current Newcastle Labour administration's plans are too focused on city centre investment. Liberal Democrats would not allow all the available development funds to be spent on the city centre. It is vital that our local centres can grow and thrive.

Communities where we "Fix the local first"

Labour has let us down. We all deserve streets we can live and thrive in, free of litter and graffiti. Why settle for less. Let's stop Labour neglect. As Lib Dems we care.

Liberal Democrat Councilors already stand up for their local communities. We would put more money into road and pavement repairs, into tackling graffiti, fixing play areas and green spaces after years of cuts. Labour complains that government is responsible for all the cuts, but we have often been able to find additional resources when we challenge the Council, and other Council's have been able to maintain much better services in this area. We would reintroduce 'quality neighbourhood standards' so that the delivery of services can be properly measured, and residents will know which services are running well and which need improvement.

Communities with local funding shaped by your local priorities

Residents should have communities to be proud of, where their views are taken into account, council funding is too distant so councillors want to act on your behalf, we want to hear your priorities and shape decisions based on your views, not what the council may impose. We think that local elected members should have more say over how local budgets are allocated. Therefore, we have proposed setting up a number of area committees so that a significant proportion of all budgets affecting local services can be agreed and voted on by ward councillors in their areas. We would seek to give residents more say, using powers to create neighbourhood plans so that you can contribute to future plans for leisure services, planning policies and investment in local high streets.