Welcome to the ​Amber Valley Labour Group

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"We want to build a Britain that works for the many, not the few.
That means building the homes we need to rent and buy, keeping our communities safe, giving our schools the funding they need, 
and restoring the NHS to its place as the envy of the world."
This is the Labour promise

It's time
for real change. Agree? 

As well as Belper, crowds came out for the Global Climate Action day in Derby, Chesterfield, Buxton, Matlock and elsewhere in Derbyshire today.
With a combination of grass roots action and Climate Emergency declarations by our councils, the Derbyshire Climate Campaign is growing every day. And we as a Council, support this action.
​The Memorial Gardens in Belper today filled with children, young people and adults marking the Global Climate Strike. Some shops closed to allow staff to attend, shoppers stopped to listen and many children and young people came from the Schools in Belper, Milford, Wirksworth and Duffield and some spoke very movingly. The youngest 8 year old Astrid to the oldest 17year old Tabitha called on the adults to do more to save the Planet.
The Council minutes below ,clearly, show that ALL Tories voted AGAINST.
Grant for deprived areas
Additional CCTV cameras
Additional dog warden
Funding for Derbyshire Unemployed Workers
Borough Council Officer based in each of the Towns
“That recommendations 2.1, 2.3 and 2.4 of the Officer’s report be moved and that recommendation 2.2 be implemented immediately, as follows:
Item 1 – Community Grants in Deprived Wards – introduction of a Councillor’s Scheme - £13,000
Item 2 – CCTV – Installation of 4 additional cameras and associated one off costs (£20,000) and Annual Maintenance costs (£15,000)
Item 3 – Dog Warden – Creation of a new post in the Neighbourhood Team and provision of a vehicle - £37,000
Item 4 – Grant to Derbyshire Unemployed Workers - £20,000 – to be approved as an annual contribution for the next 3 years
Item 5 – Customer Services Officer full time post to be based in Town and Borough Council premises - £33,000 – to be subject to a delivery plan to be determined at a later date
Item 6 – Council Tax Support Scheme – Consult on reducing the contribution to zero from the current 8.5%: start date 1/4/2020 - £40,000
The following 16 Members voted AGAINST the motion proposed by Councillor C Emmas-Williams to approve the recommendations in the Officer’s report, together with the implementation of the supplementary revenue requests as detailed above:
Councillors T M Ainsworth, R P Ashton, J W Brown MBE, C N Bull, K Buttery, G B Gee, S Grainger, R H Iliffe, P C Moss, J Orton, C J M Short, A Stevenson, D H Taylor, H Thompson, A S Ward and D Wilson

The new leader of Amber Valley
Cllr Chris Emmas-Williams​

​A Labour council will be open and transparent. For instance, important planning decisions will be taken in the communities that are affected. We will green the Borough, support the economy, and protect our Greenbelt and Heritage.
 
Environment – We can do better by far
  • Carry out air quality checks across the Borough, publicise the results and take action to tackle hotspots, especially near schools
  • Fight any Fracking proposal in Amber Valley
  • Reintroduce a dedicated dog warden service and introduce other steps to reduce the amount of fouling
  • Reintroduce the council’s popular Environment Day and support ‘Green Events’ in the Borough
  • Work with partners, such as the Woodland Trust, to promote an extensive tree planting programme in our Borough
  • Review and improve the recycling and waste collection services
  • Improve and promote use of play areas and leisure facilities, by ensuring developers contributions are collected and actually used.
  • Promote public toilets across the Borough​  
Economy – A good place to do business

  • Create and support Arts, Tourism and Heritage strategies
  • Work with partners to regenerate the A610 corridor with a Transport Interchange at Langley Mill, bringing jobs, new business and environmental improvements
  • Support our Town Centres, carry out a review of car parking charges and introduce a ‘free parking period’ for shoppers
 
Crime and Community- Safer streets and caring for all

  • Work with the Police to reduce anti-social behavior and reinstate wider CCTV coverage
  • Reinstate public access to council services in all four towns, allowing us to support residents, especially vulnerable people
  • Reinstate the Councillor Community fund to give local community groups, such as scouts; young people; the elderly and disabled groups, access to funding
 Planning and housing – The right homes in the right places

  • Introduce a policy to ensure that we will build Council housing
  • Establish an accredited landlords scheme
  • Establish 30% affordable housing as a minimum in all new developments
  • Ensure Brownfield sites are given priority
  • We will oppose the development of Greenbelt for housing and protect the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site and its Buffer Zone
 Heritage and Landscape- Our past, our future
  • Support Tourism to our Borough to help protect and celebrate our Historic Landscape and Heritage – from Pentrich’s revolutionaries to the Butterly works, to the industrial archeology of Golden Valley; from Codnor Castle to Belper Mills and the World Heritage Site. Labour will appoint a Councillor as member responsible for Heritage and Tourism
  • Ensure replacement of the Belper River Gardens Swiss Tea Rooms with a building which generates income and is appropriate for a World Heritage Site and a Historic Park. Reinstate the funding for the Belper North Mill museum, securing the museum’s future by reversing the Conservative decision to withdraw all funding
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Think Britain’s workers deserve a pay rise?
Add your name and back Labour's plan for a £10 National Living Wage.

May’s pathetic bribe is £5.7bn short of Tory council cuts

​Labour reveals that Theresa May’s “Towns Fund” bribe is £5.7 billion short of the cuts the Tories have inflicted on local councils across the country.
Councils will see a cut of £7.3 billion this decade as a result of nine years of austerity under the Tories. The Tories’ bribe is therefore £5.7 billion short of the cuts they have inflicted on communities.
The Tories’ offer is: 
·       £434m short of the damage they have caused to the East of England.
·       £405m short of the damage they have caused to the East Midlands.
·       £1.742bn short of the damage they have caused to London.
·       £505m short of the damage they have caused to the North East.
·       £1.185bn short of the damage they have caused to the North West.
·       £353m short of the damage they have caused to the South East.
·       £273m short of the damage they have caused to the South West.
·       £709m short of the damage they have caused to the West Midlands.
·       £735m short of the damage they have caused to Yorkshire and Humber.

Andrew Gwynne MP, Labour’s Shadow Communities Secretary commenting on Labour’s analysis of the government’s stronger towns’ fund, said:
“Theresa May’s pathetic bribe is £5.7 billion short of the cuts the Tories have inflicted on local councils across the country.

“Our towns are struggling because of a decade of austerity – including vicious cuts to council funding, which means cuts to social care, children’s services and homelessness prevention.

“The money on offer may sound large, but it’s a drop in the ocean compared to the billions the Conservatives have cut from local communities. This will do almost nothing to reverse the damage the government has inflicted in each and every region.

“This bribe is a shameful and pitiful attempt to buy political support. But it won’t succeed. Voters only have to look at how their towns have suffered under the Conservatives to know that under a Tory Brexit, their local council will be dramatically worse off.”
Leader -                 Cllr Chris Emmas-Williams
Deputy Leader -  Cllr Ben Bellamy
​Chair -                    Cllr Isobel Harry
Secretary -            Cllr Sheila Oakes
This is what real change looks like.

Vote Labour to create hundreds of thousands of good, green jobs.
Vote Labour to invest in all our futures.
Vote Labour to eradicate fuel poverty of the elderly and single parents.
Vote Labour to save the planet.
Vote Labour for real change.
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​Ban Fracking Now
The Tories promised they'd be a green Government, but they're pushing fracking through at all costs.
The impact of fracking is devastating our countryside. We can't stand by and let this happen.
The next Labour Government will ban fracking, and we need you to stand with us.
Stand with us and tell the Tories to ban fracking now.
Free Prescriptions for All
Over 70 years ago, Labour created the NHS to provide quality healthcare for everyone – no matter their background – free at the point of use.
The next Labour government will scrap charges on prescriptions.
Because everyone deserves access to medicines, free of charge.
Agree? Add your name to our petition.
DOG FOULING Proposed Public Spaces Protection Order consultation
The council is proposing to introduce new powers to tackle irresponsible dog owners in its area. The Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO), if introduced, will require any person in charge of a dog:
to immediately remove any of the dog’s faeces from public areas;
in public areas, to show they have suitable means in their possession for cleaning up dog faeces, e.g. a suitable bag;
to keep it on a lead in cemeteries and burial grounds; and
to prevent it from entering or remaining in children’s play areas within parks and open spaces.
Any person found, by an authorised person, to be in breach of these requirements will commit an offence and could be dealt with either by way of a Fixed Penalty Notice or prosecution in the magistrate’s court.
The council recognises that for those who use an assistance dog these requirements are not reasonable and therefore they will be exempt from the requirements of the PSPO.
Please fill in the consultation
https://www.ambervalley.gov.uk/pspoconsultation

All psychological therapies in Derbyshire to face cutbacks

Psychological therapies paid for by Derbyshire’s main NHS organisations are facing cuts, health chiefs have announced.
This comes several months after a public consultation into cuts to a small part of this service, psychodynamic psychotherapy, was paused due to the level of public opposition.
Now, during a meeting in which Derbyshire County Council had aimed to scrutinise the county’s Clinical Commissioning Group (CCGs) leadership, all parts of psychotherapy will be brought within the scope of potential cuts in order to save much-needed money.
At this stage, it cannot disclose how many patients could be affected, how much money could be cut, or give examples of therapies which are currently supplied and could be at risk.

First, slash the funding: then, watch the service standard deteriorate: finally, abolish the standard and pretend it does not matter. Tory NHS policy in a nutshell. No depths of cynicism too deep for lying Tory Governments to sink to.

​Our plan for a better, fairer Britain We have a vision for a country that works for the many, not just the privileged few.
​And we have a plan to make this vision a reality.
​Explore our policies and campaigns to find out where we stand on the most important issues.

Our country is in crisis and needs a Labour Government.
Our opponents are the Tories, not each other, and it's disappointing that a small group of MPs have felt unable to continue to work together for the Labour policies that inspired millions at the last election and saw us increase our vote by the largest share since 1945.
Labour won people over on a programme for the many not the few – redistributing wealth and power, taking vital resources into public ownership, investing in every region and nation, and tackling climate change. 
The Conservative Government is bungling Brexit, while Labour has set out a credible alternative, keeping all options on the table, including a public vote to stop a disastrous 'no deal' Brexit.
When millions are facing the misery of Universal Credit, rising crime, homelessness and poverty, now more than ever is the time to bring people together to build a better future for us all. For those millions the only solution is a Labour Government that will invest in and transform our country.
That's why we must be united – not for ourselves but to deliver a Labour Government.
Yours,
Signed, Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party
Jeremy Corbyn
Leader of the Labour Party
Important info for those responding to the AVBC Public Consultation 
​re. Green Belt
1. The NPPF was changed in July 2018.
2. The paragraphs about Green Belt are now paras 136 and 137.(Chapter 13)
3.Paragraph 136 on exceptional circumstances to amend Green Belt boundaries now refers to these being ‘FULLY evidenced and justified’, (an addition since the draft revised version).
4. While this might appear to be a more stringent requirement, the new para 137 specifies that, to justify the existence of exceptional circumstances, AVBC should be able to demonstrate that it HAS examined fully ALL other reasonable options for meeting its identified need for development’.
5. Has there been a FULL brownfield review ? NO
6.Has there been a FULL review of land that is under-utilised (i.e. land that has special landscape designation protection ) AGAIN,NO.
7.Are empty houses being brought back into use ? DOUBTFUL
8. The Inspector will pick up on this straight away when she returns to examine the Local Plan.
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