A New Year message to Liberal Democrat party members and supporters from Liberal Democrat leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

Due to the large amounts of waste being put out to be collected not all of the waste and recycling collections for this week will be completed. Please see below for an update of both recycling and domestic waste collections.

Domestic waste collection

Additional support has been put into place to ensure that the back log is kept to the very minimum and all efforts will be made to have waste cleared by the end of Monday January 3. Further information is listed below:

Sunday January 2
• Street cleansing staff will be diverted to collect side waste from areas which have not been completed by the end of play on Friday December 31.

Monday January 3
• Domestic waste crews will be working to catch up on any outstanding collections from last week.
• Bring-to-sites will be open as usual. A full list of the Bring-to-sites can be found on the council website: www.nelincs.gov.uk/enviroment

Tuesday January 4 onwards
• Domestic waste crews will be working as listed in the Christmas card advertisement.
• Street cleansing and grounds maintenance staff will be diverted, if required, to ensure that any outstanding back log of waste is collected.
• Bring-to-sites will be open as usual. A full list of the Bring-to-sites can be found on the council website: www.nelincs.gov.uk/enviroment

During these three days the Community Recycling Centre sites on Estuary Way, Grimsby and Queens Road, Immingham, will also be open between 8am and 6pm.

Kerbside recycling collection

Residents that have not received a kerbside recycling collection by 4.00pm on Friday December 31 should put out the waste from Tuesday January 4. The back log will be cleared by Friday January 7.

All residents that have received a collection should refer to the Christmas card attached below.

Due to the large amounts of waste being put out to be collected not all of the waste and recycling collections for this week will be completed. Please see below for an update of both recycling and domestic waste collections.

Domestic waste collection

Additional support has been put into place to ensure that the back log is kept to the very minimum and all efforts will be made to have waste cleared by the end of Monday January 3. Further information is listed below:

Sunday January 2
• Street cleansing staff will be diverted to collect side waste from areas which have not been completed by the end of play on Friday December 31.

Monday January 3
• Domestic waste crews will be working to catch up on any outstanding collections from last week.
• Bring-to-sites will be open as usual. A full list of the Bring-to-sites can be found on the council website: www.nelincs.gov.uk/enviroment

Tuesday January 4 onwards
• Domestic waste crews will be working as listed in the Christmas card advertisement.
• Street cleansing and grounds maintenance staff will be diverted, if required, to ensure that any outstanding back log of waste is collected.
• Bring-to-sites will be open as usual. A full list of the Bring-to-sites can be found on the council website: www.nelincs.gov.uk/enviroment

During these three days the Community Recycling Centre sites on Estuary Way, Grimsby and Queens Road, Immingham, will also be open between 8am and 6pm.

Kerbside recycling collection

Residents that have not received a kerbside recycling collection by 4.00pm on Friday December 31 should put out the waste from Tuesday January 4. The back log will be cleared by Friday January 7.

All residents that have received a collection should refer to the Christmas card attached below.

Christmas waste and recycling times

The latest crime figures from Humberside Police show that, compared to the same three month period last year: 

• The average number of crimes in this area has increased from 52.7 to 63.3 (+20.3%) 
• The average number of burglaries in this area has increased from 7 to 12 (+71.4%)
• The average number of robberies in this area has increased from 0 to 0.7
• The average number of vehicle crimes in this area has decreased from 4 to 3.7 (-8.3%)
• The average number of violent crimes in this area has decreased from 10.3 to 7.7 (-25.8%)
• The average number of anti-social behaviour incidents in this area has increased from 26.3 to 26.7 (+1.3%)

 The figures show that for the whole of N E Lincolnshire in the same period:

• The average number of crimes in this area has decreased from 1474.3 to 1419 (-3.8%)
• The average number of anti-social behaviour incidents in this area has increased from 590.7 to 630.3 (+6.7%)
• The average number of robberies in this area has decreased from 14.3 to 9.7 (-32.6%)
• The average number of vehicle crimes in this area has decreased from 152 to 129.7 (-14.7%)
• The average number of violent crimes in this area has decreased from 284.3 to 219 (-23%)
• The average number of anti-social behaviour incidents in this area has increased from 590.7 to 630.3 (+6.7%)

The Department for Business, Innovations and Skills has announced that it will continue to fight against illegal money lending (loan sharks) and scams which have a major impact on the most vulnerable people in our society.

The Illegal Money Lending and Scambuster teams are both run by Trading Standards, but the Government has decided that they will also be re-organising the structure of the IML teams to give better results and a more efficient service.

The Illegal Money Lending and Scambuster projects will be funded next year at roughly the same level as this year, receiving a total of £8.4 million, and funding in 2012/2013 is expected to be similar .

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills will also restructure the IML project, so that one team in England will work alongside national teams in Scotland and Wales. Action in England will be co-ordinated by a Birmingham based team that already covers five regions and has proved to be extremely successful.

Expanding the team’s role will bring efficiency savings, but should also bring even better results, with independent research showing that larger teams have proved more successful than smaller ones.

Liberal Democrat Consumer Minister Edward Davey said:

“These are good projects – they are taking the fight to loan sharks and scammers in communities up and down the country.

“It is extremely pleasing that despite the huge budget deficit we have been able to find the funding to continue this important work. People who prey on the vulnerable will not be tolerated and these teams will help lead the fight against these crooks.

“But at a time when extremely tough public spending decisions have to be made, we have also taken a long hard look at whether we can deliver the same outcomes in a more efficient way. I believe our new structure does exactly that – I’m confident it will bring efficiency savings and even better results.”

The Department for Work and Pensions has also announced today that Jobcentre Plus has joined forces with Trading Standards to help customers who are being targeted by loan sharks. Frontline staff at Jobcentre Plus are now being trained in how to spot signs of illegal money lending activity.

To date, the IML teams have:

• Identified over 1,700 illegal lenders;
• arrested over 500 illegal money lenders (loan sharks);
•  written off over £37 million of illegal debts (money victims would have paid back to
• illegal lenders if the Department had not acted);
• secured over 182 prosecutions, resulting in prison sentencing totalling over 107 years and one indefinite;
•  helped over 16,000 victims of loan sharks including the most hard to reach individuals;
• seized over £1.3 million in cash;
• over £20 million of assets are being investigated (under POCA) with the intention of removing these from illegal lender;
• referred over 600 victims to alternate (legal) sources of financial support

To date, the Scambuster teams have:

• uncovered an estimated £55 million worth of fraud
• made estimated £23 million savings for consumers
• £16.5 million worth of criminal assets seized
• 58 defendants including organisations successfully prosecuted with sentences totalling 75 years imposed

In his New Year message the Labour leader Ed Miliband described 2011 as the year of consequences as he warned that the Government’s cuts were forbidding and unheeding.

He said Labour’s job was now to persuade voters that the party offered ‘a better, more optimistic future for Britain’.

In response, the Liberal Democrat President-elect Tim Farron said:

“If 2011 is the year of consequences, they are the consequences of Labour leaving us on the verge of bankruptcy.

“Ed Miliband has called for a ‘proper economic strategy’ – but the last one, cooked up with Gordon Brown while Ed was in the Treasury, didn’t really work out so well.

“Labour’s legacy is a broken economy and people are hurting. Hard-working families are suffering because Labour failed to protect them in boom and bust.

“Ed Miliband’s current strategy appears to be to cross his fingers and hope for the worst.”

According to research by Age UK, 14.5 million people in the UK think that they have been targeted with a scam during 2010, and nearly 2.5 million people actually became a victim of a scam.

Older people are usually thought of as being particularly vulnerable to con men, with almost half of the over sixties questioned saying they had been targeted, but the research, from 4,732 respondents throughout the country, found that all age groups are equally at risk and that men are just as likely to be cheated as women.

Age UK found that one of the scams that can cost people the most is holiday club or time share investments.  The survey found that older people are most likely to be victims of this type of fraud, with 17% of time share fraud victims being between 70 and 79 years old.

The research also reveals that almost 75% of scam victims lost money, with the youngest (16 – 24 year olds) and oldest age groups (80 – 89 year olds) being the most likely to become victims.  Most people lost less than £100, but 16% lost more than £500.

Age UK’s study also found that once people have been scammed they are unlikely to tell anyone about it, with only 8% of victims contacting the police and only 9% contacting organisations such as the Citizens Advice Bureau.  72% of the victims did not even share their experince with friends or family.

Age UK’s survey also found that the most common type of deception which people fell for was online fraud, with 34% of scams being perpetrated through the internet.  The second most common scams were telephone calls usually offering failsafe investments or informing the victim they have won money or holidays.

Helena Herklots, Services Director at Age UK, commented:

“The evidence shows that scamming is rife. We are working to raise awareness of the issue and provide information and advice to help older people avoid being conned. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.”

Age UK has produced a free brochure called ‘Protect Yourself From Scams’. It warns of the most common scams and gives practical steps to ensure older people are not taken in by the cheats.

For more in-depth measures on avoiding the most common causes of fraud and rip-offs, the consumer rights champion and journalist Tony Levene has written a no-nonsense guide for Age UK called ‘How To Avoid Scams’ which retails at £9.99.

The free brochure can be downloaded and the book can be ordered at the scams advice section  of the Age UK website, or to order any of these guides or obtain instant advice and information call Age UK Advice free on 0800 169 65 65.

One in six people in Britain will live to celebrate their 100th birthday, official figures reveal today, more than 10million of the current population.

This dramatic demographic change has been brought about by improved diets and living conditions as well as advances in medical technology.

The figures from the Department for Work and Pensions show that:

• 17% of the population will see their 100th birthday, about 10.6million people, and of these, around three million are currently under 16.
•  Around 5.5million are between 16 and 50, and around 1.3million are between 51 and 65.
  There are about 875,000 people who have already reached the age of 65 and can expect to live to be 100

Last year there were only11,600 people aged 100 or above, which iis more than four times the figure recorded 30 years ago, and even over the past two years the figure has risen by nearly 25%.
 .

The astonishing increase in life expectancy raises concerns over how the State will be able to support so many old people, and there will be worries about how many will be able to afford a decent standard of living for such a long retirement, and it also raises the prospect of millions surviving until their 100th birthday with a very poor quality of life due to poor health.

Last month the Office for Budget Responsibility warned spending on old people is ‘unsustainable’.  At present, about 22.5% of Britain’s economic output goes on ‘aged-related expenditure’ such as pensions and the NHS,and this is expected to reach 27.1% by 2050.
Steve Webb, the Liberal Democrat pensions minister, said:

 ”These staggering figures really bring home how important it is to plan ahead for our later lives.

“Many millions of us will be spending around a third of our lives or more in retirement.”

Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader, who has recently been appointed the Government’s new Advocate for Access to Education, said he regrets the coalition’s decision to increase tuition fees, but he said that young people now need to understand the facts.

The party’s deputy leader, Simon Hughes, who abstained in the Commons vote, said he was sorry fees had jumped to a maximum of £9,000 as the result of a compromise with the Conservatives, but he insisted that higher tuition fees have not put a university education out of young people’s reach.

Mr Hughes said on the BBC’s World At One radio programme that he would remain  independent of Government, and he said:

“I am not there in a way to sell it, I am there to make sure people understand the facts.

“I wouldn’t vote for it because I believed that with the higher rate that could go, in some cases, up to £9,000 a year, that could put people off applying to university.  The problem with the system is the perception rather than the reality.”

Mr Hughes defended his position, having abstained in the Commons vote on tuition fees, adding:

“I am a member of a party that has believed, and still believes, that we should ideally not have tuition fees.

“That’s been our view and it remains the Liberal Democrat view.  We didn’t win the election, we had to negotiate a coalition with the Conservatives.

“Both other parties had actually signed up to tuition fees so it would have been similar if Labour had been the coalition partner.

“Therefore we weren’t able to deliver that. I am sorry about that, I regret that but we live in a real world with coalition politics when you have to compromise and the compromise was that there is the system that has now been agreed but there is much more work to be done.”

Labour’s shadow business secretary, John Denham, said:

“I am afraid it is a terribly cynical piece of window dressing. It’s all about trying to keep the Liberal Democrats propping up the Tory Government. It’s nothing about the opportunities for young people in this country.”

Mr Hughes described Mr Denham’s comment as “party political”, addingand added that he hoped Labour would work with the Government to encourage young people to go to university as the changes to higher education funding were “more progressive”.

He added:

“I hope I can bring something from a history of engagement with young people, from the time I was a youth worker to university onwards, to understand how we get messages across but above all get young people on our side so they have the best future.”

Mr Clegg said the Bermondsey and Old Southwark MP is ideally suited to the role as a champion of young people from deprived backgrounds.

“I know Simon will be tireless in seeking the best ways to communicate the opportunities open to young people, just as he will be a strong advocate for them to government,” Mr Clegg added.

Top health experts from across Yorkshire and the Humber region have joined forces to urge people to get their free seasonal flu jab this winter.  Although Christmas is finished for another year, the flu season is far from over. But it’s not too late to get the free seasonal flu jab, containing a vaccine to protect against the latest flu strains, which this year include swine flu and influenza B. 
  
Geoffrey Barnes, acting director of public health in North East Lincolnshire, said: The number of people who have received flu vaccinations in our over-65 population and among those under 65 who are at risk of complications from flu is much lower than we would want or expect this winter. 
  
“Now the bank holidays are over, I urge pregnant women, people who are aged over 65, and those who are in at-risk groups such as those with chronic conditions including heart and kidney disease, asthma and diabetes, to make an appointment with their doctor as soon as possible.  

“For most healthy people, flu remains an unpleasant but mild illness and generally they will recover in a few days after getting lots of rest, drinking plenty of fluids and using over-the-counter remedies such as paracetamol.”  
 
Even if people have already had a flu jab in previous years, they will need another one this year. This is because the viruses that cause flu are always changing. 
 
Paul Johnstone, NHS Yorkshire and the Humber regional director of public health said:

“Vaccination numbers are down this year and directors of public health from across the region are committed to doing all they can to help people in at risk groups to understand how important it is to get their free jab.  
 
“People in at risk groups are more likely to develop complications if they catch flu, and the seasonal flu jab will not only protect them, it will also protect their families and the people around them.”  

In the fight against flu, all frontline health staff are also being advised to have the jab.  Chris Welsh, medical director, and David Thompson, chief nurse, at NHS Yorkshire and the Humber said:

“As well as the public, we encourage all frontline health staff to protect themselves and their patients from infection and have their flu jab.”    

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is urging people to make a New Year’s resolution to think now about saving for next Christmas.

The OFT has provided practical advice to people who want to avoid the financial strain they might have suffered this Christmas as part of its Save Xmas campaign. Top tips from the OFT include:

• Plan early – be realistic about what you are going to need for next year and budget accordingly.
• Look at your options – find out about the pros and cons of post office, bank, building society and credit union savings schemes, as well as Christmas clubs, supermarket stamps and hamper schemes. Details on all the options are available at www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/savexmas
• Take action – choose the best option for you, and start putting some money aside.

David Murphy, Head of Campaigns at the Office of Fair Trading, said:

“It may seem a bit early to be thinking about next Christmas, when many of us are still eating the leftovers from this one. But we want people to be in a position to enjoy Christmas without getting into financial difficulties and that often requires a bit of forward planning. It’s all too easy to overspend so that we can create a special and memorable time for our friends and family. The idea of saving money can be daunting but there is practical help available.”

Citizens Advice Bureaux has supported the OFT in encouraging people to save through this campaign. Their Head of Financial Capability, John Rhodes, added:

“Every year we see lots of people struggling with the financial and emotional challenges of post Christmas debt. But with a bit of planning you can look into the options available and set up a savings plan that’s right for you. Why not make a New Year’s Resolution to avoid a Christmas debt hangover next year.”

Further information on the Save Xmas campaign is is available at http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/before_you_buy/money_and_credit/xmas/xmasindex