Sue Farrant congratulating Cllr Karl Wallace on his election

Karl Wallace has been elected to serve Bridport as a County Councillor. Already a District, Town and Parish Councillor, Karl lives with his family in Bothenhampton and works as an Accident and Emergency nurse at Bridport Community Hospital.

Congratulating Karl, Sue Farrant, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for West Dorset, said, “The people of Bridport have shown that they value the work done locally by the Liberal Democrat team. By electing Karl as a County Councillor they have ensured that Bridport now has a very active champion at County Hall.”

Sue Farrant, West Dorset’s Parliamentary Candidate, joined local resident Jan Ross in leading this campaign, arguing that many people here are not able to walk the mile in to town and cannot afford the prices of the taxis they are forced to rely on.

At present there is a bus that operates in this area but bypasses the A30, before stopping at Greenhill in the centre of town, however officials at the First Group company have stated that they have no plans to change the route.

Sue believes that something has to change: “It looks like the bus services were designed before there were so many people living in this part of town and it is time that the bus routes and stops were reviewed. We must make it as easy as possible for people to use public transport for environmental reasons and because we definitely don’t want our older residents to be prevented from leading active lives.”

A group of pensioners and families in Granville Way, Lambsfield, Castle Road and Chandlers came together this week to launch their campaign for the bus route to be changed to incorporate a stop at the Coldharbour roundabout on the A30. This would enable them to use the bus routes that link up with the town centre allowing many residents to reach destinations such as hospitals, colleges and shops.

Sue Farrant is calling for all those in the area to support the campaign by adding their name to the petition and which can be found at www.ourcampaign.org.uk/sherbornebuses.

We are conducting a survey of local residents. If you haven’t already filled it in you can download a copy from this web site.

Cllr Richard Biggs

Cllr Trevor Jones

Cllr Karl Wallace

West Dorset’s Liberal Democrats are celebrating after the County Council election results. In many other places, including neighbouring Devon, Cornwall and Hampshire, the Conservatives have gained from the volatile national situation and the collapse of the Labour party. Here West Dorset we have won three County Council seats and made the Conservatives fight hard for every vote in the other divisions.

We have strengthened our position and are ready for the general election campaign that must come within the next eleven months.

Congratulations to:

• Councillor Richard Biggs and Councillor Trevor Jones who beat off stiff opposition to retain their Dorchester seats
• Councillor Karl Wallace who won Bridport from the Conservatives in a tremendous victory.

The full results are available at the Dorset County Council web site.

Sue Farrant with Vince Cable

Dr Sue Farrant, parliamentary candidate for West Dorset, recently met Vince Cable, Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, to discuss the Party’s response to the recession. Sue is particularly concerned about families on low incomes and the situation of retired people whose savings are affected by low interest rates.

“The budget did nothing to help the vast majority of people in West Dorset,” Sue said. “Food and fuel costs are rising and the Conservative–run County Council is planning even steeper rises in Council Tax. Ordinary people are struggling while the wealthy and big businesses are able to exploit tax loopholes. Taxes fall too heavily on those who can least afford it and are too easy to avoid for those who know how.”

“Vince and I agreed that the budget was very disappointing. Liberal Democrats are calling for changes to the tax system that will help people on low and middle incomes. Our proposals will cut income tax bills by £700 for most people. That will be paid for by clamping down on all the loopholes and exemptions that benefit the richest people and biggest businesses. At the same time we want to scrap council tax altogether and replace it with a local tax based on people’s ability to pay.

“Not only are our tax proposals fairer but they also mean that people will have money to spend at a time when local shops and businesses badly need customers to help them beat the recession.”

Liberal Democrat tax plans

• Raise the personal allowance to £10,000
• Restrict tax relief on pension contributions for higher earners
• Tax capital gains at income tax rates
• Tackle avoidance of Stamp Duty Land Tax and Corporation Tax
• Abolish Council Tax

For more information see: the description of the Liberal Democrats’ Economic Recovery Plan on the national party web site.

Sue Farrant with Gurkha campaigners

Sue Farrant, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for West Dorset, welcomed yesterday’s vote in the House of Commons to give residency rights to 36,000 Gurkhas. The motion had been brought by Nick Clegg, Lib Dem Leader and was a defeat for the government and another blow to Gordon Brown’s authority.

Sue Farrant, herself a former army officer, has actively supported the campaign to allow the Gurkha veterans to be allowed to live in Britain. “It is only just”, she said, “That these brave soldiers who were prepared to lay down their lives for this country should be able to live out the rest of their days here.”

The government has announced that it will honour the wishes of MPs and allow the Gurkhas to stay. The decision will affect 36,000 men who retired from the Gurkhas before 1997. The campaign has been led by Joanna Lumley, whose father was a British Gurkha officer.

Pady Ashdown at the Lib Dem office in Sherborne

Lord Paddy Ashdown came to Sherborne on Saturday 25th April to open the Liberal Democrats’ new constituency office in The Old Glove Factory, Bristol Road.

The office will be the base of Dr Sue Farrant, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for West Dorset and newly appointed Constituency Organiser, Amy Tatum. Lord Ashdown, former MP for Yeovil and previous Leader of the Liberal Democrats, cut a yellow ribbon to declare the Liberal Democrats’ new HQ open.

Commenting on the number of people who had turned out for the occasion, Lord Ashdown remarked on how support for the Liberal Democrats was growing rapidly, both locally and nationally as both the Labour government and the Conservative-run County Council were seen to be failing people.

His comments were echoed by Kay Barnard, European Parliamentary Candidate and Richard Biggs, the leader of the Lib Dem group on Dorset County Council, both of whom are busy campaigning for the elections on June 4th. Cllr Biggs said, “Support for the Conservatives in Dorset is just ebbing away as people see how badly they have managed the county’s finances and are cutting vital services as a result. It is time to do things differently for Dorset and only the Liberal Democrats have the ideas and energy to put things right.”

Sue Farrant, who lives in Sherborne, welcomed Lord Ashdown, saying, “It is great to see Paddy here. He has a tremendous reputation locally and internationally and I am delighted to have his active support. West Dorset Liberal Democrats are going from strength to strength as people finally give up on both the Conservatives and Labour. It’s time for a change.”

Lord Ashdown treated the crowd to a reading from his new autobiography A Fortunate Life and shared several amusing stories of learning from West Dorset Liberal Democrats how to run his early campaigns in Yeovil.

Late last year, Dr Sue Farrant, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate, sent out questionnaires to people who had had 18th birthdays since May 2005. The survey found:

• More than half say the fear of debt would put them off continuing with education or training
• Nearly one in five has been the victim of crime and nearly three quarters think that social networking sites should do more to protect young people
• Nearly all want more money invested in renewable energy and a majority do not want more nuclear power stations
• Just over half think the UK should stay in the European Union
• Nearly three quarters believe we should nor have gone to war in Iraq

Sue Farrant comments, “I found these survey results very interesting. One of the things that it shows is that we need to do much more to enable young people to stay in full time education or training without having to worry about getting into debt. Not only must we abolish university tuition fees but we must also do a great deal more to help people get skills training”.

A more detailed summary of the results of the survey is available.

Nick Clegg

The Liberal Democrats have just finished a really successful spring Conference in Harrogate. It was closed by Nick Clegg talking about how Britain can choose a better future:

“We are the only party that will put money into people’s pockets with fair tax cuts. The only party to offer universal childcare and smaller classes in our primary schools. The only party that will use Gordon Brown’s wasted billions to create thousands of jobs today by investing in homes, hospitals, schools and public transport to build the green economy of tomorrow. The only party that will rebuild the jobs, homes and hopes this recession has destroyed. So don’t believe the doubters, the nay-sayers, the professional cynics. This time it can be different.”

You can read his speech on our website.

You can also watch a selection of the keynote speeches from conference, including Howard Dean’s address to conference.

Cllr Richard Biggs, Cllr Tim Harries, Cllr Trevor Jones, Graham Watson MEP and Sue Farrant at the Dorset Fire & Rescue Service HQ

Retained firefighters under threat

Fire stations in West Dorset are staffed entirely by retained firefighters. These dedicated people usually have jobs outside the fire service but spend well over 100 hours per week “on call” either in their own homes or at work. If there is a fire or accident emergency, they drop everything to respond.

The system works. Our highly trained retained firefighters do a fantastic job.

But it only works because the UK has kept the right for some workers to choose to opt out of the EU Working Time Directive. That limits working hours to 48 hours per week.

Now we fear that the government is about to give up the UK’s right to opt out.  That would be a disaster for our retained firefighters because their total working hours including  the time they spend on call could be well over the 48 hour limit. As a result many of of these dedicated men and women could be forced to give up their work with the fire service.

The consequences would be catastrophic to our fire service, including all seven West Dorset fire stations (Sherborne, Maiden Newton, Dorchester, Bridport, Charmouth, Lyme Regis and Beaminster).

Our campaign

Your local Liberal Democrats, led by parliamentary candidate Sue Farrant, are pressing the government to keep the UK’s voluntary opt-out so that our retained firefighters can continue their essential work.

We must make the government realise how important this is.

We need your help!

Please sign our petition at savedorsetfirefighters.org.uk to show the government how strongly we feel about this. They must keep the voluntary opt out from the working time directive so we can keep our firefighters!

Firefighters save lives. Help us save our firefighters!

Steve Webb MP and Sue Farrant with Equitable Life victims in West Dorset

Steve Webb MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, addressed a lively and well-attended meeting of Equitable Life victims in Dorchester last Friday (30th January 2009). The meeting was organised by Sue Farrant, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for West Dorset, so Steve could give pension policy holders the very latest information on this long-running scandal.

The government has ignored the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s call for compensation for the 1.5 million people who have suffered large losses to their pensions and savings. At least 1,000 people in West Dorset have suffered as a result of mismanagement by Equitable Life and regulatory failures under both Conservative and Labour governments.

Local Liberal Democrat Dr Eric Evans, said that he had been told that some MPs, civil servants and journalists had been compensated, but sworn to secrecy. Equitable Members Action Group (EMAG) confirmed that this was indeed correct.

Sue Farrant has offered to help EMAG to form a local action group.