“Stephen McPartland must back calls for Dominic Cummings to go, and put the fight against Coronavirus first” says Liberal Democrat spokesperson Lisa Nash.

The Liberal Democrats have written to Stephen McPartland urging him to “end the distractions” and support calls for scandal-hit Dominic Cummings to go, so the country can focus on the coronavirus emergency. 

In the letter, Liberal Democrat spokesperson Lisa Nash for Stevenage Constituency urges him to “put the interests of your constituents first, end the distractions and join the growing number of Conservative MPs who are calling for Dominic Cummings to go.”

The call comes alongside Liberal Democrat demands for an independent inquiry into the Government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, while several Conservative MPs have also broken cover to call for Dominic Cummings to quit, amid claims he broke coronavirus lockdown rules twice.

Lisa Nash said: 

“People right across the Stevenage Constituency have made incredible sacrifices to stop the coronavirus. Even if the Prime Minister keeps his blinkers on, Stephen McPartland cannot be oblivious to how angry people are with this scandal.”

“Each minute this scandal is allowed to drag on is another minute the Government is distracted from upscaling Britain’s testing capacity, securing PPE for frontline workers and preventing the tragic deaths in our care homes.”

“Stephen McPartland must stop defending the indefensible and put the health, wellbeing and economy of our country before efforts to save the Prime Minister’s adviser.”

Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey added:

“By failing to act, the Prime Minister undermines his own authority to lead the country through this appalling crisis, bringing his own judgment into question”.

“The Prime Minister must come clean about what he knows and terminate Dominic Cummings’ contract. It is now clearer than ever that, once we are through this crisis, there must also be an independent inquiry to review the Government’s actions.”

Please see the open letter from Liberal Democrat spokesperson Lisa Nash for Stevenage constituency below.

Dear Mr McPartland,

People right across the Stevenage Constituency have made incredible sacrifices to stop the coronavirus. I hope you will therefore empathise with how angry people are about reports that the Prime Minister’s Senior Adviser, Dominic Cummings, has wilfully disregarded the lockdown rules.

It cannot be one rule for senior government officials and another rule for everyone else.

Given the national crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic, I fear each minute the Prime Minister allows this scandal to drag on is another minute the Government is unable to give people clear, honest answers about why testing capacity is so low, why there is a lack of protective equipment for frontline workers, and why so many people are dying in care homes.

I am therefore urging you to put the interests of your constituents first, end the distractions and join the growing number of Conservative MPs who are calling for Dominic Cummings to go.

I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,

Lisa Nash

Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Stevenage Constituency

Daisy Cooper, MP for St. Albans, has put together lots of information on help and support for businesses, the self-employed, tax, physical and mental health, community initiatives, help paying your bills, and more. Some of these are specific to St. Albans but others are relevant to all. You can find them on her website here: https://www.daisycooper.org.uk/covid19

The government is now advising the public to wear a face covering in some circumstances, such as enclosed spaces where social distancing may not always possible.

Face coverings do not protect you from contracting coronavirus. However, if you are infected but haven’t yet developed symptoms, they should help to provide some protection for people you come into contact with in a busy shop or on public transport.

To help people interpret the government’s advice and choose the right face covering for their circumstances, the Public Health team from Hertfordshire County Council has developed guidance for employers and the public.

Please see the guidance here (20-May-2020).

Some useful contact information for Stevenage is given below:

NHS advice

Get the latest NHS information and advice about coronavirus

Visit the website or phone 111

Stevenage Testing Centre (Mondays only)

How to access Stevenage’s pop-up COVID-19 drive-through test centre (on Mondays). This and other test centres have been commissioned by local NHS organisations and are supported by the military. Testing will open at 10am and run until 4pm.

Information about the test criteria, together with an explanation of what to do if you meet the criteria for a test is included in this updated (15th May) document.

Stevenage Covid-19 Mutual Aid

A Facebook group for Stevenage residents looking to help each other out during the Covid‑19 / coronavirus pandemic.

Facebook page

Stevenage Helps

Provides support for vulnerable residents (help with shopping, medicines collection, advice or support).

Tel: 01438 242452 (Mon-Fri between 09:00 and 17:00)

Email: community.development@stevenage.gov.uk

Herts Help

A network of community organisations in Hertfordshire working together, and helping people in crisis to find support, guidance and information.

Tel: 0300 123 4044

Email: info@hertshelp.net

Stevenage Citizens Advice

Free, independent, impartial, confidential, advice for everyone

Tel: 03444 111 444 (Mon-Fri between 10:00 and 16:00)

Visit the Stevenage CAB website

Foodshed

A food bank run by Stevenage Vineyard church

Tel: 01438 361616

Email: info@stevenagevineyard.co.uk

The Foodshed website

Stevenage Community Foodbank

Supporting local people who are experiencing short term food poverty

Email: stevenagecommunityfoodbank@gmail.com or visit the Facebook Group

Feed Up Warm Up

Providing hot food, food parcels, warm clothes, haircuts, foot care, sanitary items, AA and NA guidance and counselling for the less fortunate people of North Hertfordshire.

Email: feedupwarmup@gmail.com
Visit the website: Feed Up Warm Up

Herts Age UK

Working to improve later life for thousands of older people in Hertfordshire today and in future generations

Tel: 01707 323272 (Mon-Fri between 09:00 and 16:30)

Visit the Herts Age UK website

Compassionate Neighbours

Trained volunteers offering social and emotional support to people in their local community.

Tel: 01462 679540 (option 8 and leave a message)

Email: cn@ghhospicecare.org.uk 

Visit the Garden House Hospice Care website for information.

People for People

A community help page for those in any kind of need, and for those who can help. “It’s People for People. No more ‘us and them’. It’s just us.”

Find it on Facebook

Stevenage Football Club

Providing non-medical advice and support including helping with food bank deliveries and a friendly ear.

Tel: 01438 222222 (Mon-Fri between 10:00 and 16:00)

Visit the club’s website

– www.stevenagefc.com

There is also some excellent information in the latest issue of the Stevenage Chronicle, which should be dropping onto your doorstep soon. In case you don’t receive it, here is a pdf version.

Watch this space for information on the Chells Litter Pick, which will probably be in Pestcotts Wood and Ashtree Wood.

***POSTPONED***

Following the success of last year’s litter pick, Councillor Tom Wren has arranged another clean up of the woodlands in Chells.

The community litter pick will be held on Saturday 21^st March 10:30 am -12:30 pm and will focus on clearing litter from Pescott Wood and Ashtree Wood. The meeting place will be the grassed area between Fry Road and Pankhurst Cresent (near to Phoenix Nursey).

Last year a small team of volunteers managed to clean 34 bags of rubbish from nearby woods in just a few hours.

For more details or to register your interest visit;

https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/events/chells-litter-pick-5e2aff1021a07

The Liberal Democrats would use an ambitious £50 billion regional growth fund to invest in local projects.

The Liberal Democrats, who are fighting their campaign on a platform to Stop Brexit to build a brighter future, have earmarked £50 billion to reverse regional under-investment from the Conservatives.
This £50 billion ring-fenced by the party will go towards major, sustainable infrastructure projects, such as improving public transport, increasing the availability of charging points for electric vehicles and improving broadband access.

Lisa Nash, the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Stevenage Constituency said “it is vital our communities are not left at the back of the queue. Our constituency is not all affluent leafy Hertfordshire and we need to make sure we get our share of investments to address the issues that are important to us locally. Stephen McPartland, our former Tory MP, has not been fighting to get any of the funding that ought to be available to us. We need to stand up for our constituency and that’s what I’ll do.

“For far too long people have seen our area miss out on the investment it needs. Successive governments, both red and blue, have failed to listen to our local needs, neglected our public services and hung our community out to dry.

“People deserve better. It is vital that we are not left at the back of the queue.

“That is why the Liberal Democrats are prioritising an ambitious £50 billion regional growth fund. If elected, I will fight tooth and nail to make sure this money is invested in Stevenage – in the projects that are important to us in our town and villages. These could be things like housebuilding, rural services, walking and cycling routes, public transport and electrification.

“That is the brighter future our communities deserve, not the uncosted promises of the other parties.”

Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor Ed Davey added:
“Any form of Brexit, whether red or blue, will make Britain’s economy weaker and people poorer.
“Neither Labour nor the Tories can square their spending promises today with the cost of Brexit. They are writing promises on cheques that will bounce.
“In contrast, every vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote to stop Brexit, build a brighter future and invest billions into our vital public services.”

Printed and published by Stephen Booth on behalf of Lisa Nash and the Liberal Democrats, all at 2B North Road, Stevenage SG1 4AT

A Liberal Democrat government would cancel the 2.8% rail fare increase planned for December 2018 and freeze Stevenage Constituency commuter fares and season tickets for the entirety of the next five years.

These proposals would save season ticket holders from Stevenage to London £1,712, and from Knebworth to London £1506, over the next five years. This policy is expected to cost approximately £1.6 billion.

The Liberal Democrats would also overhaul ticketing by simplifying the system, looking to create season tickets for part-time commuters and introducing early-bird fares. The party would ensure that all rail franchises apply delay repay compensation for delays of 15 minutes or more.

Lisa Nash, Liberal Democrat candidate for Stevenage said:

“Under the Tories, local commuters have been catastrophically let down. People are paying way over the odds for what has often been an appalling service. The change in timetabling was a shambles and commuters were left paying very high fares for a very poor service. The season ticket is a major expense for constituents who work in London and not all of them are going in to high paid jobs in London.

“The Liberal Democrats will build a brighter future by freezing fares from Stevenage and Knebworth for the next five years, saving local commuters hundreds of pounds. We will properly invest in fixing our creaking rail network to improve capacity and reduce overcrowding, so Stevenage constituency commuters are no longer treated like cattle.

“But this is about more than just providing more funding. We will also strip rail companies of franchises if they don’t meet the standards expected of them, and develop new transport mutual companies to foster alternative competition.”

The party would replace business rates with a commercial landowner levy, based on the value of the land only. This would take the cost off businesses and help support high streets. The proposals would cut taxes for businesses by 13% in the Constituency.

By taxing landowners rather than businesses, half a million small businesses across the country would be spared the burden of property taxation.

Lisa Nash, Liberal Democrat candidate for Stevenage, said:

“Many retailers and small businesses in Stevenage constituency are under pressure from economic uncertainty, the rise of online retail and the burden of business rates. We can see this in the number of empty units in our town centre and high streets in the town and villages.

“Yet this Conservative government is failing to get to grips with the crisis facing our high streets. Time and again they have promised reviews of business rates but have failed to take action.

“The Liberal Democrats will shift the tax burden from tenants to landlords, so we can breathe new life back into our high streets. We will stop Brexit and build a brighter future, giving local businesses the certainty and support they need to thrive.”

Only 85.8% of patients arriving at A&E in East and North Herts NHS Trust were treated or admitted within four hours in October 2019, according to damning figures published today by NHS England.

This is well below the official target of 95% of patients attending A&E being admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

Nationally, the 95% waiting target hasn’t been met since July 2015. Only 83.6% of patients arriving at A&E across England were treated or admitted in four hours in October, the worst-ever performance since a target was introduced in 2004.

Lisa Nash, the Liberal Democrat candidate for Stevenage, commented:

“Our hospitals are under-resourced. It is shameful that patients in our constituency are waiting for hours for treatment in A&E or for months in pain for routine operations. It shouldn’t be like this in the sixth largest economy in the world.

“These figures reveal the Conservatives’ dismal record on the NHS. For the past four years the Tories have utterly failed to invest properly in our health service, leaving local hospitals underfunded, overstretched and understaffed.

“Their extreme Brexit would make a dismal situation worse by driving away the EU nurses the NHS desperately needs.

“ Locally people tell me that Health and Social Care is one of their key concerns and as someone who is both a user of the local services and works in the NHS I know just how bad things are. 

“The Liberal Democrats will stop Brexit and build a brighter future. A Liberal Democrat Government will invest an extra £35 billion in our NHS through a penny on income tax and develop a national recruitment strategy to ensure we never again suffer shortages of nurses, doctors and other health professionals.”

In 2018, Cape Town in South Africa was in the unenviable position of being the first major city in the modern era to face the threat of running out of drinking water. According to a BBC report from February that year, London ranks number 9 out of the 11 cities most likely to run out of drinking water? Our constituency is very close to London so we would be impacted by that, which is a frightening prospect.

Despite 70% of the planet being covered with water only 3% of it is drinkable. According to UN-endorsed projections, global demand for fresh water will exceed supply by 40% in 2030, thanks to a combination of climate change, human action and population growth.

Air pollution

Air pollution contributes to 40,000 premature deaths a year and costs the NHS £15 billion. This year, London exceeded its annual air pollution target in just five days – remember we are just on the doorstep of our capital city. Successive Conservative and Labour governments have failed time and again to comply with EU limits on pollution. We will:

• Ban new sales of petrol and diesel cars/small vans in the UK by 2030 investing to provide green public transport and public hire vehicles within five years; reforming vehicle taxation to encourage sales of electric and low emission vehicles and investing in the charging infrastructure and universal charging points

• Extend Ultra Low Emission Zones and charges to ten more towns and cities

Add to this our continued reliance on fossil fuels for business, heating and transport, which is poisoning the air that we breathe; our failure to invest in green housing and our lack of investment in a green infrastructure and you can see the picture for the human race is bleak. None of us want our children to grow up in a world where people fight for clean water.

Stevenage is in the centre of a major transport link, meaning there are high levels of traffic and congestion; our bus services have been cut and what are left are running on diesel buses and don’t connect huge parts of our constituency with our train links; we are building housing developments such as Gresley Way where the access is unsuitable and will bring major congestion for traffic. All of these things will mean our air quality deteriorates.

Green energy

The Conservatives have repeatedly cut the support for Green energy production that we championed when in Government – damaging the environment and costing British jobs. Liberal Democrats have a host of net zero policies to combat the climate emergency with an ambitious target.

We will:

• Expand renewable energy, aiming to generate 60% of electricity from renewables by 2030, restoring government support for solar PV and onshore and building more electricity interconnectors to underpin this higher reliance on renewables..

• Support an ambitious carbon capture and storage programme, which is essential for delivering clean industrial growth.

• Ban ‘fracking’ because of its adverse impact on climate change, the energy mix, and the local environment.

At over £1,200 a year, the cost of heating and lighting an average home in the UK is high – and with a falling exchange rate, costs will rise further. More than two million families – one in ten households in England – cannot afford to heat their home properly. We will reduce energy bills permanently by improving home insulation and encouraging small-scale, community and local authority renewable schemes. We will make saving energy a top infrastructure priority, to bring down energy bills and carbon emissions, creating thousands of jobs and helping end the fuel poverty crisis once and for all.

Natural environment

Britain’s natural environment is precious. The countryside, wildlife and urban green spaces are critical to health, wellbeing and a sense of community. The quality of the environment also underpins key industries such as agriculture and tourism. We will invest in our natural environment and green spaces and reward landowners for the outcomes of their work to protect the environment. We will plant trees and restore coastal paths to help our planet to cope with the levels of carbon we have released into the atmosphere.

Fishing

The vote to leave the EU puts farming and agricultural businesses in huge danger, threatening cuts to the support which underpin farmers’ livelihoods; our ability to manage the countryside, and also puts tariffs on exports. For agricultural products outside the EU, tariffs average 22.3% – putting Britain’s £18 billion of food exports in danger. Our system must support our farmers safeguarding the quantity and quality of our food production and protect the environment. We must continue to improve standards of animal health and welfare in agriculture by updating farm animal welfare codes and promoting the responsible stewardship of antibiotic drugs.

Fisheries

We must also protect our fishing industry by not allowing fishing rights to be traded away against other policy areas as Labour and Conservatives have done.

Britain’s economy fails to make the most efficient use of natural resources. We aim to cut waste, increase recovery, reuse and recycling and move towards the so-called ‘circular economy’ in which resource use, waste and pollution are minimised and product lifetimes are extended. This will cut costs for consumers and businesses and create new jobs and enterprises, helping to grow Britain’s economy.

Published by Stephen Booth on behalf of Lisa Nash and the Liberal Democrats, all at 2B North Road, Stevenage SG1 4AT

There is no longer any doubt that we are facing a climate emergency. The ice continues to melt in the Arctic and water levels rise around the world; the Amazon rain forest – the lungs of the world – burn; we are faced worldwide with increasing freak weather including flooding and drought, even in the relatively temperate climate of the UK.

The Liberal Democrats regard climate change as one of the biggest challenges of our generation and we demand action now. Governments around the world, including the Conservatives and Labour in the UK, have failed to take this seriously – they have signed up to targets but failed to take on the challenge with serious policies. Countries around the world urgently need to implement the commitments made in 2015 at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris. Some countries are making significant progress but the UK under both Labour and Conservative Governments is currently failing to demonstrate clear political leadership to address the urgent environmental problems facing the planet. 

Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson has set out plans for businesses to be given a legal “duty of care” on environmental and social issues.

• The Conservative’s record on the climate crisis is appalling. They have declared an emergency but have done nothing about it. That is like setting off the fire alarm and then standing by as you watch the house burn down.

• Liberal Democrats want to see businesses take greater responsibility for the impact they have on the environment. That is why we want a general duty of care for the environment, to ensure that companies are avoiding damaging the environment in their operation and supply chains…

• The Liberal Democrats have ambitious plans to tackle the climate emergency so that we can look after the planet we have because there is no Planet B.

We have no time to lose: this is an urgent crisis that demands real action now. The Liberal Democrats demand action now. We will:

• prevent 40,000 premature deaths a year by cutting air pollution.

• invest in renewable energy, creating green jobs across the UK.

• ban fracking and more than double green electricity to 80 percent by 2030.

• ensure that 30 million properties receive insulation retrofits by 2022, prioritising the fuel poor.

Lisa Nash says: I am proud that we have a well thought out and ambitious strategy to play our part in saving the planet for ourselves and future generations.

Read more on the environment [here]. To find out more about the Liberal Democrats’ detailed proposals to deliver these policies go to https://www.libdems.org.uk/environment

Published by Stephen Booth on behalf of Lisa Nash and the Liberal Democrats, all at 2B North Road, Stevenage SG1 4AT