Liberal Democrats in Blackburn, Darwen, Hyndburn and Rossendale

The Liberal Democrats have ensured this is a budget for the millions not for the millionaires, a Budget for many not the few.

That's why the biggest move in this Budget is a tax cut for ordinary workers, going further and faster towards the Liberal Democrat goal of making the first ten thousand pounds you earn tax-free.

The Liberal Democrats in government have made sure that the Coalition's budget is one for the many, not the few.

The budget cuts the income tax bill for 34,900 hard working local people and introduces new taxes on the richest to ensure they pay their fair share.

Commenting on the budget local Lib Dem Leader Cllr. David Foster said:

The Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Blackburn with Darwen Council has criticised the Council for being 3 months out of date. The main noticeboard which is a prominent town centre position outside the Town Hall has a notice for a meeting that was held on 1 December last year, the Civic Carol Concert held in December last year and Christmas arrangements for last year. Councillor Foster said, "This give a terrible impression of the Council nobody can be bothered to keep this up to date and there is no notice about the most important Council Meeting of the year which decides how much Council Tax we will be paying. This is on Monday 5 March - but nobody will know if they looked at the noticeboard"

At last week's Lancashire County Council Budget meeting held at Preston the Liberal Democrat proposals were rejected these included:

* Investing £2m to support Small and Medium size Enterprises (SMEs) to capitalise on superfast broadband

* Investing £10m towards apprenticeship placements & support to SMEs to support the employment base.

Darwen Liberal Democrats are pleased to see that the work to improve Darwen Railway Station has now started. We have been campaigning for a long time to get it improved, particularly to have better train information and facilities for passengers.

The six week contract will see fencing repaired and repainted, new shelters for passengers, a new CCTV system, new signs, a customer information system including a public announcement system and ticket machines. It should be completed by the end of March, weather permitting.

Blackburn with Darwen Liberal Democrats have started a campaign to have a 20 mph speed limit for all the Borough's residential roads.

Announcing the campaign, Lib Dem Group Leader Cllr. David Foster said, "We have a higher than average accident rate in the Borough and studies suggest that the introduction of a 20 mph limit would reduce accidents by 20% - 30%. 20 mph speed limits are not new and we do have some areas in the Borough which have a 20 mph limit. One of the drawbacks in the past has been the introduction of road humps in 20 mph areas. This has made it expensive and unpopular with some people. Regulations have now changed and road humps are not required. We don't expect to whole of the Borough to have the limit overnight, but we want a commitment from the Council to have a rolling programme to see them introduced eventually across the whole Borough. We would expect them to target high accident areas initially. The limit would not apply to all our roads i.e. main through routes but would only apply to residential roads."

Bringing a clean energy revolution to communities across the UK

The Community Energy Challenge is a bold new initiative by The Co-operative that will support a powerful set of community energy projects and help unleash a clean energy revolution across the UK.

For the Community Energy Challenge, The Co-operative is seeking six to eight ambitious communities keen to develop projects that involve local people, change the way we think about energy, and inspire others to shape a renewable energy future.

Inflation fell sharply in January as the impact of last year's VAT rise was no longer shown in the figures.

The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) measure of inflation fell to 3.6% in January, down from 4.2% in December, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation - including mortgage interest payments - fell to 3.9% from 4.8%.

Darwen has missed out to Blackburn in the introduction of a scheme to improve conditions for people in private rented accommodation.

At the Council's Executive Board on Thursday the Board decided on introducing the scheme in the Griffin Area in Blackburn. The report however showed that the biggest problem was in the Sudell and Earcroft areas of Darwen.