Labour to explore creation of new Municipal Energy Company for Stirling

IMGP0548 Stirling Labour’s manifesto will show a commitment to a new municipal energy company to help tackle fuel poverty and to help promote local energy production. The Labour led administration has already installed 1500 solar panels on council house roofs, helping tenants reduce their annual bills by up to £300. Labour’s plan would see a new municipal-led organisation look at ways to generate energy through district heating systems and emerging technologies.

In Stirling East, Chris Kane and Corrie McChord are standing for election. Chris says,

Too much of our household income is spent on heating and that needs to change. Fuel poverty and fuel security are only going to get worse if we rely on fossil fuels and national grids to generate and deliver our energy. There are some exciting and innovative energy production methods emerging that can be achieved at community level and we need to support and develop them. Labour want Stirling’s communities to have cheaper bills with costs fixed for longer periods. We want profits reinvested in our communities and we want our environment protected. Stirling Council have the clout and the scale to kick start a local energy revolution and a Labour-led administration would get it done.”

Under the Labour-led administration, Stirling Council has already invested £8m on solar PV and has committed to invest a further £4.25m over the next two years on installations on another 1200 properties.

In Stirling North, Danny Gibson and Jennifer Preston are standing for election. Danny says,

If reelected in May, Labour will spend the next six months pursuing a municipal energy company for Stirling. The SNP will spend the next six months making up their minds on whether to allow fracking under Stirling’s Communities. Stirling doesn’t need another fossil fuel, but we do need to ensure it is our communities who benefit from the rise of local green energy schemes. Labour stands for good jobs, warm homes, caring communities and great education. A municipal energy company will bring jobs, reduce energy bills, see profits reinvested in communities and teach our children that you can put environmental responsibility at the heart of what we do.”

The commitment to a new municipal energy company is part of a range of initiatives being promised by Stirling Labour, who are fielding candidates in all seven wards across Stirling. Labour have led Stirling Council since 2012. Elections to Stirling Council are being held on 4^th May. Labour’s full manifesto will be unveiled soon.

Labour candidates urge Stirling’s voters to send the SNP a message that Stirling is AGAINST fracking.

stacks The SNP Government has written to community groups to let them know they are considering fracking across Stirling. The SNP are quietly gathering views ahead of unveiling their fracking strategy by the end of 2017. Fracking, or the extraction of unconventional oil and gas, involves injecting chemicals at high pressures to break up underground rocks and release the fossil fuels they contain. Communities and individuals have until 31^st May to log onto consult.scotland.gov.uk and tell the SNP not to frack up Stirling.

Stirling East has been identified as one of the areas where fracking is being considered. Chris Kane is standing as a Labour candidate in Stirling East along with Councillor Corrie McChord. Chris says,

“Our climate can’t stand another fossil fuel and our communities don’t need the risks associated with fracking. We need to focus on community led energy schemes. In my community I’ve been helping lay the groundwork for a District Heating system; cheap, reliable and green heat, warmed in the old mineshafts under our feet. We’re also looking at a Heat Transfer system; heating community facilities with the excess heat generated by nearby factories. I want Stirling to be a beacon for a low carbon future, not blighted by the sight of oil wells and the sound of drilling.”

Since 2012, the environmental policies of Stirling’s Labour-led administration have made Stirling one of greenest in the UK. Labour have invested in low energy LED streetlights. Labour are generating power from solar panels on council buildings and council homes. Labour have helped reduce energy bills by installing insulation measures in council homes and helping the private homes that need it the most. Labour have ensured Stirling recycles over 55% of its rubbish, one of the highest rates in the country.

The Bannockburn Ward is another of the areas where fracking is being considered. Councillor Margaret Brisley is standing for reelection in Bannockburn alongside Councillor Violet Weir. Margaret says,

“The SNP are cynically putting off announcing their plans until AFTER the council elections. If the SNP were against fracking, they would have said so by now. If Nicola Sturgeon wants it, no Stirling SNP Councillor will dare defy her. We need councillors who will stand up for Stirling, not councillors who won’t even stand up to their own party. On May 4^th, I urge everybody to vote Labour and send a message to the SNP that Stirling is against fracking and for a greener future.”

Labour want a future built on new, greener technologies. The SNP are considering a future with fracking. It’s time fossil fuels went the way of the dinosaurs that created them.

Braehead Post Office Move Is Terrible Decision

Commenting on the news that Post Office Ltd have chosen to move the local branch from Springfield Road to Wishart Drive, Labour’s Stirling East Candidate and Local Community Leader Chris Kane says,

“I’m deeply disappointed by Post Office Ltd’s disregard for the views of the community and their customers. There have been petitions over this move organised by local residents. I’ve written with my concerns and the concerns of the dozens of people who have raised this issue with me in recent months. Post Office Ltd have made it just that little bit harder for elderly and those with mobility problems to access local services and that isn’t right. While I wish the new operators at Broomridge Mini-Market every success with this venture, this isn’t the location for Post Office services that local residents wanted.”

The move will take place in the coming months once preparatory work has been undertaken at the new site.

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Labour will always stand up for our communities and fight on your behalf. We need local people with local knowledge and a track record of success as our local councillors. Chris Kane is already a successful Community Leader – he’s been Chair of Braehead Community Council for 6 years. He’s set up a charity, Braehead & Broomridge Community Development Trust, to deliver new services and opportunities in his community. He’s raised over £250,000 and built Braehead Community Garden.

Corrie McChord has been serving his community as a Stirling Councillor for over thirty years. A Trade Unionist, Board member of Forth Valley NHS Trust and former Board member of SEPA, Corrie has been Stirling Council Leader seven times over the years.

On 4th May, elect two local residents who continue to deliver for all of us. VOTE FOR CHRIS KANE and CORRIE MCCHORD in STIRLING EAST.

Kezia Campaigning In Stirling

Scottish Labour Leader Kezia Dugdale was in Stirling at the weekend to open our campaign office for the forthcoming Stirling Council Elections. Kezia joined candidates and activists at the shopfront in Riverside before heading into the city city to listen to voters and talk about Labour’s achievements in Stirling since taking charge of Stirling Council in 2012.

CLPKD1 — Cutting the red ribbon at our Stirling Campaign Office

Kezia said,

“the Stirling Labour-led Administration on Stirling Council has much to be proud of over the last five years, including becoming the first Local Authority in Scotland to be accredited as a Living Wage Employer and the first to introduce 600 hours of free pre-school childcare. Add in two new primary schools, two new nursery schools and over 300 new council houses and a new Care Village and we know that Labour has been delivering for the people of Stirling. With hundreds of millions of investment on the way to Stirling with the City Deal, I can’t wait to see what Labour Councillors will deliver over the next five years.”

Jennifer Preston, one of Labour’s two candidates for the Stirling North ward, which includes the city centre, said,

“It was great to see Labour students and elderly residents in animated conversation over the need for a regulated bus service that puts people before profit. We talked about the need to ensure landlords treat tenants fairly and the benefits of a real living wage. We also heard from local businesses about the concern they have over the Kerse Road bridge closure and the impact it could have on the city. May’s election is about standing up for local services and having a vision for Stirling. Labour always have and always will stand up for the people of Stirling.”

Engaging with Stirling residents and Labour activists on the issues that matter.

Open Letter to Stirling Residents from Council Leader Johanna Boyd

Stirling Council Leader Johanna Boyd has penned an open letter to all Stirling residents on the implications of this year’s budget motion, due before all councillors on Thursday 23 February.

Next Thursday, I will propose a budget motion at a full council meeting, my fourth budget since becoming Stirling Council Leader. In my first three budget motions, I moved that there should be no increase in the Band D council tax level. The 2017 budget will be no different.

But council tax is going up in 2017. Councils can only set the rate for Band D properties, with the seven other bands set as a proportion of the Band D rate. The SNP Government can change these proportions and this year have chosen to do so. From April the SNP have decreed that Band E-H properties will see their bills increase by 7.5%, 12.5%, 17.5% and 22.5% respectively.

Householders who live in Band E properties will see their council tax bills increase by £110 next year. For band F householders, the rise is £216. In band G it is £349 and in band H it is £539.

None of your councillors had any say in this council tax rise. Just as we have had no say in the last nine years of council tax freezes.

The SNP Government have effectively frozen council tax for a decade by threatening any council who raised it with severe financial consequences. Can you imagine how Nicola Sturgeon would react if Theresa May said she would cut the Scottish Government’s block grant if the SNP tried to raise taxes?

Since I became Council Leader I’ve said we need a grown up conversation about local taxation. This isn’t a conversation; this is an SNP decree that will hit families hard. The Labour Group can’t in all good conscience compound the SNP rises further which is why we’re not making changes to the Band D rate.

Finance Minister Derek Mackay had the audacity to propose reducing the block grant to councils by 3% to try and force us into making a 3% rise. Scotland’s locally, democratically elected councillors of all political parties are accountable to their communities and they should be free to make their own decisions on council tax.

Whoever you voted for in 2012, you voted for them in the expectation that they would be able to represent you here in Stirling, not be forced to implement the wishes of SNP ministers in Edinburgh.

While most of us accept that the time has come for the council tax to rise, many have been shocked by the size of the increases they face. Rather than modest rises over a longer period, the SNP Government have frozen rates for a decade and then suggested that it is acceptable for some families to face a 26% rise in one year.

Why didn’t the SNP bring in the increases more gradually? Why didn’t the SNP engage with councillors (including ones from their own party) who have been telling them for years that the freeze has massively damaged council services? Why, when Alex Salmond said in 2008 that the council tax was an unfair tax, is it still here? Why, when the SNP repeatedly called for it to be replaced, has nothing been done in a decade?

Perhaps that’s something you can ask them when they come knocking on your door looking for votes in the run up to the council elections on May 4th.

Labour Councillors propose draft Budget that prioritises social care and education

Stirling’s Labour led administration is proposing a budget for 2017/18 that would see an extra £400,000 for Stirling’s schools and £1.8 million pounds for social care. In addition, Stirling’s Labour councillors have worked hard to ensure that all local community groups or charities that rely on council funding will continue to receive support.

Labour Group Finance Spokesperson John Hendry says,

“The Labour-led Administration has made some tough budget choices over the last few years. We’ve managed the SNP Government imposed cuts as best we can and we go into the next year in a stable but poorer condition than we would like. Through prudent financial management, we’ve found an additional £1.8 million for social care, £400,000 to help schools employ more Classroom Assistants and more money to spend on badly needed repairs to roads and footpaths. We’ve shown that Labour are the party that care about local priorities and the best way to ensure that continues in the coming years is to vote Labour in May.”

The SNP Government are imposing massive increases on some families by increasing the council tax and don’t really care what they, or their local elected councillors, think about the rise. That’s the feeling of the Labour Group on Stirling Council who have proposed a budget that doesn’t compound the 7.5%-22.5% increase being imposed by SNP Government ministers in Holyrood.

Council leader Johanna Boyd says,

Thousands of letters dropped through council taxpayers’ doors last week from Stirling Council with details of a SNP Government imposed tax increase. Band E-H properties will see their bills increase by 7.5%, 12.5%, 17.5% and 22.5% respectively. We’ve said for nine years we need a grown up conversation about scrapping council tax. This isn’t a conversation; this is an SNP decree that will hit families hard. The Labour Group can’t in all good conscience compound the SNP rises further which is why this budget contains no additional increases to next year’s council tax.”

Householders who live in Band E properties will see their council tax bills increase by £110 next year. For band F householders, the rise is £216. In band G it is £349 and in band H it is £539.

Stirling Councillor Corrie McChord added,

“Across the country there are SNP and Labour led Administrations being dictated to by SNP Ministers at Holyrood. How dare these SNP MSPs claim to know more about local priorities than the councillors – including the ones from their own party – who live in Scotland’s towns and cities and work every day in Local Government. For a decade the SNP have been calling it the unfair council tax and for a decade the SNP have done nothing about replacing it, while at the same time dictating to councillors what to do with it. After ten years it’s time to scrap the council tax and leave Scotland’s communities to run themselves according to local, not national, priorities.”

Stirling Council’s administration is obliged to publish their draft budget seven days before the council meet to debate it. The SNP opposition are allowed to wait until twenty-four hours before the budget meeting. This year’s budget meeting is set for Thursday 23 February. You can read the Administration’s budget proposals as part of the council meeting agenda.

Labour Councillors propose and pass motion to protect public money and the public provision of Stirling’s Leisure Services

The Labour Group on Stirling Council have set the wheels in motion to create a new charitable trust to take over the operation of Sport and Leisure services in the district. It follows a tendering exercising in which only two bidders came forward, neither of which Labour’s councillors judged to deliver best value for public funding.

One of the two organisations bidding was Active Stirling, an independent charitable trust set up by Stirling Council to run Leisure Services a number of years ago. However, Active Stirling chose to submit a bid for the new contract in partnership with an organisation who operate in the private sector. The other bidder also approached the tender from a commercial background.

Labour Council Leader Johanna Boyd said,

“One of the first actions Labour took in 2012 when we regained control of Stirling Council from the SNP was to make it council policy not to commercially outsource council services. It would appear that the structures behind both bids received for this contract breach the original ethos of having a Stirling-based, independent, not-for-profit model which would reinvest any surpluses back into local sports and leisure programmes. With this in mind, and given the uncertainties over the length of the contract and company structures of both bids, the Labour Group took the view that neither organisation submitting a bid sufficiently addressed the issues around best value and we voted to stick to our principles of keeping council services out of the hands of private, profit seeking companies.”

Instead of voting to back council officer recommendations, the Labour Group introduced an amendment that instructed officers to:

Develop a business case and transition plan to transfer leisure services from the current provider to a new not-for-profit charitable trust to be set up by Stirling Council, but run independently by local people
Temporarily extend the current contract with Active Stirling until November 30^th 2017 to allow for a smooth transition of services.

The Labour Group’s Corrie McChord says,

“Neither of the bidders put forward a plan that gave the Labour Group the confidence to award them one of the most expensive and longest contracts Stirling Council has ever considered. This is about more than running “The Peak; it is about ensuring sport and leisure be used to reduce risk factors that can lead to health and other inequalities. It is about running community services such as the small gym at the Raploch Campus or swimming lessons across Stirling’s high schools. Today Labour have taken steps to protect publicly run, publicly accountable leisure services while safeguarding tax-payers money.”

Labour Councillor Danny Gibson added,

“The SNP Group have been using their time this week to score cheap political points against other parties. The Labour Group has been working hard to find a solution to a problem. Voters recognise and value leadership, which is what Stirling Labour have been yet again providing. Irrespective of some of the nonsense being spouted by the SNP this week, it was nonetheless positive that all political parties supported Labour’s proposal.”

Stirling Labour call on Bruce Crawford MSP to clarify position on SNP censorship of poverty report

Stirling’s Labour politicians have reacted angrily to the news in Tuesday’s papers that the SNP Government pressured their own Poverty Adviser into deleting criticism of SNP policies that disproportionately affect low income families.

SNP Government advisor Naomi Eisenstadt has admitted that she complied with some requests from officials to change the wording of her findings before they were released to the public last week, despite SNP claims that she is completely independent.

Jennifer Preston, Labour’s Candidate in the Stirling North ward says,

“It is appalling that the SNP want to censor a report that they commissioned that could help low income families. An SNP commissioned report that said that Local Authorities provide a range of vital services and these tend to be most used and most valued by households on low incomes. An SNP commissioned report that said any reduction in these services would be damaging for low income households and for the strength of some local communities. It is unbelievable that SNP politicians then went on to cut hundreds of millions of pounds from Local Authority budgets. It is flabbergasting how little regard the SNP have for people who don’t toe the party line and worse, how little regard they have for those people most affected by the cuts across the country and across Stirling, including those in Raploch, Cornton, Top of the Town and Causewayhead.”

Stirling Council Leader Johanna Boyd says,

“This is damning evidence that not only are SNP policies harming the most vulnerable in our communities, but that SNP politicians are trying to cover it up and keep the public from learning what their own appointed experts think. Stirling MSP Bruce Crawford needs to urgently clarify what he knew of this report prior to publication and if he thinks it is acceptable to censor expert opinion in this way. We’ve been saying for years that the SNP’s brutally unfair approach to Local Authority funding is hurting those who can least afford it and now even SNP appointed officials agree with us. When will the SNP stop trying to blame everybody else for the cuts to local services and start listening to the experts who say it is SNP policies that are the cause of the problem.”

The SNP Government Report, “Independent Advisor on Poverty and Inequality: Shifting the curve – a report for the First Minister” was published on 20^th January and is available to view on the government website.

Labour council candidates say further cuts to Local Authority budgets are a dangerous SNP road to go down

Labour Council Candidates in Forth & Endrick and Trossachs & Teith have today said that a cut to Stirling Council funding from the SNP next week is both a wrong and dangerous road to go down.

Speaking in advance of the Scottish Government laying out its spending plans for the next year, Labour’s candidate for Forth and Endrick, former MSP Dr Richard Simpson said,

“While I know Stirling’s Labour-led administration will do all it can this winter to keep our rural roads safe, the SNP in Edinburgh need to see the bigger picture. Budget cuts not only affect investment in road improvement but also have a real impact on communities trying to go about their daily business which in turn can harm the local economy. Less funding means councils are less able to respond to typical – let alone unusual – winter conditions in future. Although I suspect they’d like it run centrally from Edinburgh, the SNP can’t control the weather – but they can control how much money they give local government who have to keep vital services rolling no matter what the conditions are like. The SNP have to realise that if as a result of their political choices the local government settlement is cut again next week, it will have severe consequences for roads, transport and travel across Scotland.”

Labour’s candidate for Trossachs & Teith, Gartmore resident Gerry McGarvey, says,

“Years and years of cuts and more cuts from the SNP in Edinburgh are having a huge impact on our towns and villages. If the budget is further cut next week, no amount of hand wringing from the SNP will make up for the loss of jobs in the hospitality and other industries if tourists decide to avoid the risk of damage to their vehicles. Buses operators have already decide to cut their services as council subsidies, already stretched to the maximum, can no longer support what the operators need to make rural bus routes viable. We need our government to be supporting Stirling’s rural communities, not making life more difficult for us by slapping us in the face and reducing their financial support.”

After nine years of a council tax freeze, Stirling Council has had to cut over £30 million across all services, with an extra £7 million in this financial year. With around 60% of funding coming from the SNP in Edinburgh, a further cut next week will push services already stretched to breaking point even further.

Richard Simpson added,

“While the SNP will want to point the finger at the Tories in Westminster, it is important to note that while the Tories have cut Scotland’s grant by around 5%, the SNP have cut the grant to local authorities by around 11%. The SNP are the administrators of austerity in Scotland and it is our communities, our roads, our schools, our venerable residents in care and so many more people who suffer. This has to stop and I hope the SNP realise this ahead of their budget statement on Thursday.”

The SNP Government in Edinburgh will publish its draft budget for the coming year on Thursday 15 December.

Stirling’s Labour Councillors motion calling for a Living Wage rise for 400 council employees is passed unanimously

At this week’s full meeting of Stirling Council, a Labour Group motion put forward by Labour councillors Johanna Boyd and Corrie McChord calling for a raise in the minimum wage paid to council employees was passed unanimously. The minimum wage will rise from £8.33 per hour to £8.50 per hour and will be backdated to 16th November 2016.

This means pay packets will rise by more than the Living Wage Foundation’s latest recommendations. Every year the LWF sets an hourly rate which is the figure they’ve worked out people need to live. Last month (November 2016), the LWF set the figure for the next year at £8.45 per hour, significantly more than the national minimum wage which is £5.55 per hour for over 18s, £6.95 an hour for over 21s and £7.20 an hour for over 25s.

Photography bu Whyler Photos of Stirling www.whylerphotos.com — (L-R) Labour Councillors Weir, Hendry, Boyd, Simpson, Brisley and Robbins

Labour’s Leader of Stirling Council Johanna Boyd says,

“It was a Labour priority in 2012 when we came into administration to deliver a living wage and I’m delighted that since then we’ve been a trailblazer for such an important and socially responsible issue. In the face of some of the most brutal cuts brought about by the SNP Government strangling council funding, we’ve consistently found a way to stay true to Labour values and acknowledge the pressures on individual and family budgets.”

Corrie McChord says,

“This motion not only continues to address low pay, it also addresses equal pay because most of the beneficiaries of any increase are women. Last month the Tory Chancellor set the National Living Wage at £7.20, but anybody on that rate will tell you it simply isn’t enough. It is great that with some political will and determination, we have set a higher standard for both public and private sector organisations to aim for and that is good for the economy and our communities.

Stirling Council became a Living Wage Accredited employer in 2015 and encourages all local employers to adopt fair work practices. The Labour-led administration has ensured a Stirling minimum wage higher than the Scottish Living Wage every year since 2012.