Community wardens have removed the equivalent weight of five school buses in dumped waste from the alleyways of North East Lincolnshire over the last year.

The figures come in spite of criticism labelled at the wardens by some readers of the Telegraph.In a recent online poll at www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk 81 per cent of voters said “no” to the question: “Do you think community wardens are effective in the role?”Councillor Steve Beasant (Liberal Democrat, East Marsh), the portfolio holder for Neighbourhoods and Communities at North East Lincolnshire Council, believes the figure proves just how useful the wardens are.

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The economic regeneration team at North East Lincolnshire Council is being praised for its customer service skills.

The team has achieved Customer First accreditation for the third successive time, a sign of regeneration’s excellent work with the wider business community in supporting and developing a range of projects to North East Lincolnshire.

It first achieved the classification in 2004, and has been awarded it at intervals of two years ever since.

Following a day audit, a Customer First assessor said the Agency displayed many examples of best practice and demonstrated a clear focus on meeting client needs.

In addition to ensuring great service delivery the accreditation will mean that the agency will be able to continue to access business support funding from the regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward for a further two years.

Tony Hunter, chief executive of North East Lincolnshire Council, said: “The council has a deserved reputation for delivering excellent levels of customer service. Achieving this accreditation will help motivate staff, heighten their self esteem and enhance pride in what they do.”

Councillor Geoff Lowis, the council’s portfolio holder for regeneration and housing, added: “I would like to offer my congratulations to the team for its hard work and commitment to realising this accreditation. What is especially pleasing is the acknowledgement that our regeneration team place interaction with the public and businesses at the heart of what it does.”

A report that outlines a potential future for the area’s economy and well-being to the year 2018 and beyond has received widespread support as it enters its next chapter.

The North East Lincolnshire Place Branding Study, a 44-page document by Manchester-based branding experts Creative Lynx, outlines a series of recommendations for North East Lincolnshire including:

• Adopting Greater Grimsby as an ‘umbrella brand’ for all future marketing of the area
• Building complimentary place brands of Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Immingham as integral to the overall proposition.
• Using Lincolnshire wherever possible in accompanying copy and imagery.
• Launching a new website to promote the area

The study, which has included 35 consultations with 23 organisations and also quizzed inward investment advisors, has been met positively by North East Lincolnshire Council - who first commissioned the work - and the Economic Development Enterprise and Environmental sub-group of the Local Strategic Partnership.

Now, the council is working with the consultants to produce an implementation plan on how the recommendations of the report can be taken further.

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Travelling around North East Lincolnshire by public transport is set to get a lot easier, thanks to a series of new and improved information services.

The council is expanding its Traveline-txt 84268 text messaging service that sends travel information straight to passengers mobile phones.

Simple to use, Traveline-txt allows travellers to receive up-to-date bus timetable information in the form of easy to read text messages, 24 hours a day.

Already piloted and proving popular on the number 5 bus route, this service will be expanded to include the 16 and 45 bus route, plus the bus station and Osbourne Street/ Bethlehem Street area by the end of January 2009. And eventually, the service will be available at all bus stops within North East Lincolnshire.

The new year will also see the introduction of 3D maps at Grimsby and Cleethorpes train stations and Grimsby bus station. The new maps will make it clearer for passengers to understand where they are and how they can make connecting bus or rail journeys, or just find out more information about the area they are in.

Also at the end of January, the council in partnership with Stagecoach, will be publishing the pocket-sized bus timetable and map guide.

The guide will include all local bus services and community transport information and will be available from Stagecoach, in council customer access points, libraries and in Freshney Place.

To compliment all the new services the Traveline information service continues to operate with accurate bus and rail information just a phone call away on 0871 2002233.

The travelling public needs to be confident that the information they receive is accurate and reliable.

By offering a comprehensive range of information services, more people will be encouraged to use public transport as there preferred method of travelling around the borough. This has to be good news for the environment.

A local school has been rated among the best in the country in its latest Ofsted report.

Grange Infant and Nursery School which is soon to merge with Grange Junior School has received a glowing report from inspectors.  The school is just outside the Yarborough Ward, but it is attended by children from all over the surrounding area.

The report begins by saying: “This is an outstanding school. It makes a significant difference to the life chances of its pupils and makes an excellent contribution to the life and work of the local community.

“The success of the school is rooted in the exceptional levels of dedication and commitment of all staff.

“Nothing is too much for them, a fact that is valued by parents, the large majority of whom hold the school in high regard.”

The report continues: “Early analysis of the 2008 national test results suggest that pupils are making much better progress than pupils from similar schools.

“Given the low starting point to school, and the significant barriers to learning, including over half of pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, to reach such standards represents outstanding achievement.”

It said “not a second” was lost and “packed with exciting activities”, whilst play is “exceptionally well organised” and a “learning experience”.

In a letter to pupils from Ofsted, inspector Dave Byrne said: “All of your teachers and the headteacher care for you very much.

“You all seem to enjoy school and I hope that you continue to do so. You are lucky to go to such a good school, in fact it is one of the best in the country!”

Headteacher Richard Oulton said it put them in the top seven per cent of schools in the area.

It was a proud moment for him, having worked at the school a total of 18 years: “We have worked hard to get it to this standard, and that is thanks to the dedication of the staff.

“They were delighted when I told them.”

He said much of the evidence came from the youngsters themselves: “Ofsted work to get a lot of their information directly from the children now, and talk to them.”

Official figures revealed by the Liberal Democrats show that the value of Government ministers’ taxpayer-funded retirement funds has risen by 10 per cent this year.

In contrast private workers pension funds are estimated to have fallen by as much as a quarter as stock markets and interest rates fall.

Some senior ministers are entitled to pension funds of more than ten times the average workers’ private retirement fund.

The average private pension fund has a value of around £25,000 and because of falling annuity rates, this pension fund will only generate an annual income of just over £1,600.

Gordon Brown may have given up his entitlement to a larger prime ministerial pension, but his Cabinet minister’s fund is still worth £274,000, which is still enough to deliver an annual income of more than £19,000.

Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary has the largest fund which is worth £294,000, and Alistair Darling, the Chancellor and the other member of the cabinet to have served since 1997, has a fund worth £235,000.

Ministers contribute to their pension funds, but the largest contribution comes from the Treasury, which contributes 26.8% of a minister’s salary into the fund.

Minister’s pensions are paid in addition to any pension a minister builds up as an MP.

The figures taken from departmental accounts, show ministerial pensions have a “cash equivalent transfer value” of £7.4 million.

Lord Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat Work and Pensions Spokesman, said: “Taxpayer guaranteed, index-linked ministerial pension pots shot up by a tenth last year, but private pension pots have plummeted, typically by a quarter in 2008.

“Ministers and mandarins live in a pensions time warp.  They look like the First World War General in Blackadder, sipping fine wines in a chateau well behind the front line while privates in the trenches get their pensions shot to pieces.”

Senior civil servants have also seen their pension funds increase healthily.

Leigh Lewis, the senior civil servant at the Department of Work and Pensions saw his pension pot rise by £314,000 from £1,567,000 to £1,881,000.

Lord Oakeshott said that was proof that top public sector pensions are “clearly out of control”

Earlier this week, the Daily Telegraph disclosed that public sector pensions are set to rise by five times next year’s rate of inflation.

Pensions experts have warned of a growing division between public sector workers with well-funded final-salary pensions and private-sector staff with much less generous retirement schemes.

It has been revealed that 140,000 families are being paid more in benefits than the average take-home pay. 

These households are receiving £20,000 every year, according to official estimates.

The size of these payments will probably anger millions of families who are struggling to keep up with the economic downturn.

The average salary before tax is currentlyjust over £25,000, but after deductions that sum shrinks to just over £19,000, but, benefits are tax-free.

Employment minister Tony McNulty insisted that 140,000 families represents just 1% of households with at least one person of working age.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Chris Grayling, who obtained the information through parliamentary questions, said the number was still “an awful lot”.

He added that many families would be receiving tens of thousands of pounds in housing benefit alone.  Around 2.7 million people are on incapacity benefit, but the Government accepts that a many of those should be working.

Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell announced radical plans this month to get millions off benefits and into work, including reforming incapacity benefit and forcing lone parents to seek employment.

House prices have reached a new low as the latest Land Registry figures show that the average home has lost 1.9 per cent of its value in November.

This reduced the average price of a home £161,883.  The new figures also showed that house prices have fallen by 12.2 per cent in the last year - the largest drop in prices since the survey began in 2000, and the average house price is now back to the same price as in February 2006.

The Land Registry also showed that the number of house sales dropped in the third quarter of the year.  In the three months to the end of September, sales more than halved to 48,599 compared with 115,697 in the same period in 2007.

In September the number of properties that sold for more than £1million dropped by 54 per cent to 354 compared with September last year.

House prices in the South West, North East and North West suffered falls in November, of 0.5%, 0.9% and 1.3% , while  property values in Yorkshire and

Humber fell by two per cent.

According to the Halifax, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender, the average UK home lost 16.2% of its value during the year to the end of November to stand at £163,605 - about £31,500 lower than 12 months before.

The Halifax said that homes lost a further 2.6% of their value during November, which is the biggest monthly drop since September 1992.

Nationwide figures for November showed annual house price falls eased during the month to 13.9%, compared with  drop of 14.6% in the figure for October.

It said that property values fell by 0.4% in November, compared with  1.3% in October.

A New Year’s message from Nick Clegg can be read at http://tinyurl.com/7k2xcn 

A transcript is below:

2009 must be a year of real change and of hope says Nick Clegg in his new year message.

Every day, 200 families are now at risk of losing their homes, and three million people could be out of a job.

The government got us into this mess and haven’t got the right ideas to get us out of it. The Conservatives want to do nothing - they wouldn’t lift a finger to help.

As the New Year starts, it’s time to do things differently.

There is a path to recovery.

Liberal Democrats will do things differently.

We’ll get practical help to families who are struggling - more money in their pockets with big, permanent and fair tax cuts.

That way people will be able to afford the bills and get spending again.

And Liberal Democrats will put the economy back on track with a big, green investment programme.

Instead of wasting billions on a pointless VAT cut that makes little difference we would invest that money to cut your fuel bills, create thousands of jobs and deliver what our country needs for the future.

Warm homes, schools and hospitals, clean energy, public transport we can all be proud of.

I know we can fix the economic mess Britain’s in. If only we do things differently for once. Instead of making the same old mistakes the same old parties have made for generations.

Both Labour and the Conservatives keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect something different to happen. They are parties of the past, prisoners of their own special interests.

Perhaps the greatest danger of today’s recession is that it will mortgage the future of our children. We must prevent that from happening.

That’s why in the first three months of this year, Liberal Democrats will be focusing on the help we can give to children and young families.

Good quality childcare for every family, so children can flourish and mothers and fathers can get out to work - or look for work - without worrying about the nursery or childminder fees.

Extra funding for children from deprived backgrounds, to help raise standards in schools for everyone.

And we’ll be unveiling a pledge to reduce infant class sizes to 15 - so every child gets the individual attention they need to get the best start in life.

This is a time of crisis. But crisis can bring renewal. It can bring change.

Imagine a better Britain - where no-one is held back by their upbringing, everyone has the power to change things for the better, and anyone who struggles gets a helping hand.

A Britain with fair taxes and safe, properly run banks - so that everyone who works hard can make it. A Britain that switches to green energy so the planet is protected and new jobs are created. A Britain where every child is given the chance to succeed.

2009 must be a year of doing things differently. A year of real change. A year of hope.

And that’s what the Liberal Democrats offer.

Happy New Year.A

If there is anyone who has tried unsuccessfully to access my site over the last few days I would like to apologise for any inconvenience. There has been a problem over the Christmas period with the server that hosts the ALDC websites.  The server has now been working for a couple of days, and hopefully the problem has now been resolved and normal service can now be resumed.

I hope that you all had a great Christmas, and I would also like to wish you all a happy New Year