Great Harwood: Mercer Hall in bloom

The flower bed outside Mercer Hall in Great Harwood has come to life with spring flowers and has created a very attractive frontispiece for the town centre. The Parks department at HBC have been busy planting new flowers all over the borough and these can now be seen brightening up our townships.

Are you With Us? A You Tube video from the Labour Party

 

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzxXm7tFZBk&sns=em

We are for the many, not the privileged few.

That is what the next Labour Government will fight for.

LCC: New 0300 numbers replace 0845 to save residents money

The Labour-led Lancashire County Council has made a decision to move away from 0845 numbers to 0300 numbers to make it cheaper for customers to call. The switchover happened at midnight on March 27th 2014.

The old 0845 numbers will run in tandem with the new 0300 numbers for an indefinite period as there is still plenty of literature and notices which bear the old contact details. Customers will be given an option of the cheaper 0300 number whatever they dial but the replacements are completely new numbers rather than just a different prefix and a full contact page can be located here:

http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/corporate/contact_us

Cllr Noordad Aziz takes part in the first Ron Hill 10k Run

More than 1,000 people packed into Accrington to celebrate the first ever Ron Hill 10km race and Cllr Noordad Aziz (pictured here with HBC Leader Miles Parkinson) from the Hyndburn Labour group was among them.

Around 500 runners from across the country joined with the borough-born Olympic legend for the race which went from the town centre to Rising Bridge and back.

The Accrington Observer has run a story here:

Accrington Observer - thousands-join-accrington-ron-hill

Hyndburn postal voting makes up 17% of all electors in the borough

New national statistic show that 11,748 postal voters in Hyndburn make up 17% of the 69,020 residents who are eligible to vote in the borough elections. With elections this year due to take place slightly later on May 22nd in order to accommodate the European elections, residents still have time to register for a postal vote with Hyndburn Borough Council. Get in touch with the Council by phoning the switchboard on 01254 388111 and ask for a postal voting form.

The Hyndburn Labour group have made the decision this year not to hand out postal voting registration forms on the doorstep as the borough is under scrutiny from the Electoral Commission who are watching East Lancashire following a higher than average number of voter fraud claims.

The Lancashire Telegraph ran a story on this some time ago:

Lancashire Telegraph - Greater_risk_of_poll_fraud_in_East_Lancashire

LCC Lancashire is open for business

The leader of Lancashire County Council, Jenny Mein, posts regular blogs of her work. Her March edition has this to say about investment in Lancashire:

In February I made a trip to meet with the Guangdong Provincial Office of Science and Technology in the city of Guangzhou to help promote trade relations between our County and China's fourth most populated province! I joined a delegation from Lancaster University to sign a five-year memorandum of understanding to promote enhanced partnerships between UK and Chinese small and medium sized enterprises specialising intechnology through collaborative research projects leading to the development of new products and services for world markets.

The £5 million Lancaster-China Catalyst Programme, part-funded by Lancashire County Council, aims to revitalise the UK’s position in the global exports market, create 240 jobs, help 400 domestic businesses and boost the economy by £40m. Lancaster University's research excellence and their pre-existing links with China are a real beacon for our County in helping to build our global export market and support the vital work of our County's SMEs. Working together with the University we are putting the spotlight on technology businesses in Lancashire and ensuring thatwe have a seat at the top table of international investment and trade for the sector.

We're putting a lot of work into supporting business right across our County. As a Party it is one of our key priorities in office to promote the creation of sustainable and meaningful employment for residents in Lancashire. The City Deal which I signed off in September is set to bring over £1 billion in the way of new economic activity over the next ten years. We will seethe development over of 20,000 new jobs, 15,000 new homes and a £450million investment in critical and strategic infrastructure, employment development and housing. Investment in our infrastructure cannot be overstated in fostering the commercial environment and distribution links our businesses need to thrive.

I was pleased, to this end, to cut the first sod for the Heysham to M6 link in February. The development and construction alone will see over 3,000 people employed with 100 of these being local, currently unemployed, job seekers who will betrained up and taken on. Access routes to existing industrial areas and development sites alongside a new 'park and ride' scheme are all designed to help boost Lancaster's local economy and that of the region as a whole. £123 million will be invested in the project with early reports indicating that for every £1 spent we will see £4.40 returned for residents in Lancaster and throughout Lancashire.

These are just a few of the projects we have been working on over the last nine or so months to keep Lancashire's economy moving forward. Labour is serious about supporting businesses in Lancashire to deliver the jobs, wealth and services our County needs, we are very much open for business.

Hyndburn Children Performance Summary 2013

Several charts have been produced by Hyndburn Borough Council showing issues and areas of concern regarding children. The charts give statistics and information ranging from ethnicity to the percentage of those who are breastfed.