Freedom Central

“Inept” spending decisions threaten climate change action

Kirsty Williams — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:31:42 +0000

Research by the Welsh Liberal Democrats has shown that the Welsh Government has spent £900,000, £1,100,000 and £1,400,000 in each of the last three years on promoting climate change awareness.

Grants include £20,000 over two years for annual newspaper supplements on climate change and over £0.5 million a year to the Sustainable Development Commission and Cynnal Cymru.

We estimate that this could have paid for around 1000 improvements to homes in fuel poverty through the Home Energy Efficiency Scheme – making an immediate impact on carbon emissions.

The last few years have seen an unprecedented amount of public awareness of climate change from films, celebrities and the voluntary sector.

When money is this tight, we shouldn’t be spending so much public resource on awareness campaigns, when we could be spending it on effective schemes which have a real impact on carbon emissions.

Some of these schemes may have been ‘nice to have’ in years when Assembly budgets were expanding, but when we need to be concentrating on key services, the Minister really needs to make sure that money is being spent where it is needed most.

After spending £3.5 million pounds, the Government need to explain by how much the carbon footprint has been reduced. When we know investment in home energy efficiency would have tackled carbon emission as well as fuel poverty, there needs to be a good reason why we are spending money on these schemes instead.

I call on the Minister to undertake a complete audit of how her department spends money to make sure that the climate change budget is being put to the very best use.

No progress on young people not in work or training

Freedom Central — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:20:52 +0000

The Western Mail reports on research that shows that thousands of young people across Wales remain out of work and not in education.

They say that official figures show a total of 12% of 16 to 18-year-olds were so-called Neets (Not in Employment, Education or Training) at the end of last year. The situation among 19 to 24-year-olds was even more serious, with more than a fifth (21.6%) in this situation, up from 17.6% in 2008.

These statistics show how fmuch the Welsh Government has to improve its performance if it is to hit its target of ensuring that 93% of 16 to 18-year-olds are not Neets this year. In 2006 just 10% of this age range were jobless and outside the education system, but this had climbed to 12.5% by 2008.

Jenny Randerson, Welsh Liberal Democrat education and economy spokeswoman, said: “These figures show a disappointing stagnation in the reduction of young people not in education, employment or training in Wales.

“Historically, Wales has had the highest percentage of Neets in the UK and the Labour-Plaid government really needs to get a grip on these figures so that young people don’t start life on the wrong foot.”

Wales is failing to compete

Peter Black — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 07:29:37 +0000

The Ambition 2020: World Class Skills and Jobs for the UK report published today tells us that Wales was ranked at the bottom of a league table of UK competitiveness and came 11th out of 12 UK areas in a UK productivity league table. We also have a lower than average employment rate of 69% against the UK average of 72.7%:

Mark Spilsbury, author of the Investors in People report published by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, said: “In the current economic climate, it’s more important than ever that businesses are able to get the best out of their people.

“This means challenging and inspiring managers and employees at all levels to achieve their potential: employers have to be ambitious and act now to develop the skills they will need.

“This will improve their productivity and performance, benefiting them, their employees, and the country as a whole.”

An Investors in People spokesman added: “Ambition 2020 warns that the UK is at risk of sliding down international productivity rankings – threatening the country’s competitiveness – unless its skills and employment systems are fundamentally improved.

“Investors in People is urging businesses across Wales to increase their investment in the skills of their people to help keep their organisations on track and remain competitive in future.”

There is a clear role for the Welsh Government in tackling this problem, whose underinvestment in education and training to date must have a role in this poor outcome.

Irrespective of the UK situation, if the Welsh workforce is not geared up to take opportunities when they come along then we will continue to scrape along the bottom of league tables like this.

Three Welsh Government Education Chiefs in five years

Freedom Central — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:26:06 +0000

This morning’s Western Mail reports that Professor David Hawker, the director general of education in Wales has announced he is to step down from the role in September.

They remind us that his successor will be the fourth appointed to the position in five years following the departures of Steve Marshall, who was flown in from Australia to take over the department in 2006, and interim boss Dennis Gunning.

Shadow Education Minister Jenny Randerson, the Cardiff Central Lib Dem AM, said Prof Hawker’s resignation was a concern.

“The high turnover of director generals in the education department suggests that all is not well,” she said. “With rising child poverty levels and a high number of young people not in education, employment or training, Wales can ill afford this revolving door.

“The Labour-Plaid government must take immediate action to ensure strong, effective and lasting leadership in this department.”

Cost of free bus travel rises

Freedom Central — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:28:07 +0000

This morning’s Western Mail reports that the cost of Wales’ free bus travel scheme for older people has increased so rapidly that there is no money left over to help teenagers travel to training or jobs.

They say that Assembly Government payments to bus operators for free carriage of over-60s have more than doubled in six years to £66m – while passenger journeys on buses increased by just 7.8%. New figures also indicate that from 2007-08 to 2008-09, there was no increase in passenger journeys in Wales, but the Welsh Government paid 15.8% more to bus firms under the free travel scheme.

Jenny Randerson , the Liberal Democrats’ transport spokesperson expressed the party’s commitment to the scheme. She said: “On the doorstep, the free travel scheme is the one thing that people talk about that the Assembly has done which really made a difference to their lives. You get the financial benefit to pensioners, the social benefit to people who might be more isolated otherwise, and you stimulate bus travel.”

But she added: “It has to be brought into line with retirement age. Women will be retiring at more than 60 in the future.” She said there was “a big argument” for post-16 concessionary fares, but funding was a problem.

Minister’s higher education strategy suffers setback

Freedom Central — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 05:40:14 +0000

Welsh Education Minister, Leighton Andrews encountered a first reality check yesterday in his attempt to reduce the number of higher education institutions in Wales through mergers so as to create bigger, world-class universities. Not for the first time the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (Uwic) rebuffed a possible merger with the University of Glamorgan.

According to the BBC although the University of Glamorgan told the Minister that they want to create an academic institution which would be “of a size and scale to compete with its cross-border neighbours”, staff at Uwic have been told that the university intends to remain as “an autonomous institution, working interdependently with others where there is mutual benefit in so doing”.

The strategy being pursued by the Education Minister is not unique. Indeed it has been the policy of Welsh Governments for the best part of a decade. However, as the Welsh Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson, Jenny Randerson told Plenary last month, there are legal obstacles in the Minister’s way because of the legal status of universities. She asked: “Are you planning to attempt to change that legal status in any way? That might involve taking on the Privy Council. It would be interesting to know if there is a way in which you can approach this issue to secure mergers that would be easier than that discovered by your predecessors,” but got no coherent answer.

A previous education minister put a huge amount of pressure on UWIC, Glamorgan and Newport to merge into a single South East Wales University to little effect and although there are some good examples of collaboration in the sector the sort of revolutionary transformation sought by Leighton Andrews will struggle to break free from the turf wars and the morass of jealousies and rivalries that dominate much of the Higher Education scene in Wales at senior management level.

The Minster does of course have the ultimate sanction of holding the purse strings for HEFCW and of being able to issue explicit instructions to that body as to how they allocate money, but he has less than a year to make a mark before the Assembly elections and no real way to drag the higher education horse to water if it does not want to drink.

Nigel Howells selected for Cardiff Central Welsh Assembly seat

Newswire — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 15:30:57 +0000

Councillor Nigel Howells has been selected as the prospective Liberal Democrat Candidate for the Welsh Assembly election in Cardiff Central next May.

The Liberal Democrat Councillor for Adamsdown currently holds the sport, leisure and culture portfolio for Cardiff Council. If elected he will take the place of longstanding Assembly Member and former Minster, Jenny Randerson as the Lib Dem AM for the seat.

Plaid Cymru chairman Dixon quits over party’s direction

Freedom Central — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 07:34:24 +0000

The BBC report that the national chair of Plaid Cymru has handed in his resignation citing personal and “significant political” reasons.

Writing on his blog Mr. Dixon cited personal and “significant political” reasons for his decision:

But it isn’t as simple as just the personal and it would be dishonest of me to pretend that it is; there are some significant political reasons as well. There are a number of ways in which I feel that the party has moved, or is moving, in a direction which I cannot support, but being a national office-holder has fettered my freedom to say so.

His decision is most probably unrelated to but nevertheless comes following some unwelcome publicity for Plaid Cymru regarding manoeurvrings around the party’s selection processes for regional list seats.

Last week’s Wales on Sunday reported that that many Plaid Cymru members are throwing their weight behind a bid to unseat Bethan Jenkins in an attempt to “punish” her boyfriend, Neil McEvoy for his attempt to get into the Assembly and the subsequent threat to South Wales Central AM, Chris Franks.

The Inside Out blog highlighted further developments in this battle when they revealed that copies of an email sent by Mr. McEvoy are circulating in which he urges ex-car workers to sign a letter of mass support for Bethan after her campaigning work on their behalf.

Welsh Liberal Democrat reshuffle

Newswire — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 05:46:39 +0000

Mike German’s departure for the House of Lords has seen his replacement by Veronica German and as a result the Welsh Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet has had a re-shuffle:

Kirsty Williams:
Group Leader and Spokesperson for Environment and Rural Affairs, Chair of the Sustainability Committee

Peter Black:
Spokesperson for Housing and Finance, Assembly Commissioner and Business Manager

Eleanor Burnham:
Spokesperson for Communities, Culture and Social Justice and European Affairs

Veronica German:
Spokesperson for Health & Local Government and Equal Opportunities.

Jenny Randerson:
Spokesperson for the Economy and Education, Chair of Legislation Committee No.4

S4C must look at management costs and senior salaries

Eleanor Burnham — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:20:48 +0000

Recent reports that S4C is facing cuts to its future government grant of as much as 24% over a four year period are worrying but as yet unconfirmed.

While this is just speculation at the moment, if these cut have to be made, S4C must ensure that the quality and standard of Welsh language programming are not affected. S4C need to make efficiencies in backroom functions to limit cuts in what we, the viewers, see on the channel. S4C must look at cuts in management and senior staff salaries as some of the pay in the higher echelons are out of touch with people living in the real world.

Undoubtedly, Plaid Cymru will kick and scream calling this an attack on the Welsh language, however, people who do not live in ‘financial fantasy land’ will accept that cut will have to be made in every department given Labour’s shambolic mismanagement of our economy and finances over the last 13 years.