On 28th February MEPs voted to extend EU rules aimed at reducing the cost of using mobile and smart phones whilst abroad and approve new structural measures to inject more competition into the roaming market. Since 2007, EU roaming regulations have gradually introduced price caps on cross-border mobile phone calls and text messages and established guarantees against ‘bill shocks’.

The European Parliament’s Industry Committee however voted to replace current rules, which expire in June 2012, with even lower price caps to move further towards a levelling of domestic and cross-border mobile phone charges. The new regulation will also, for the first time, impose caps on ‘data roaming’ – fees which incur when customers surf the internet for music, film or photographic files for instance which are often several megabytes in size. In addition to the price caps, the new regulation would introduce a set of structural reforms aimed at attracting new operators to the market who may rent rather than own the networks and can contribute to lowering prices by stimulating competition.

Adina Valean (PNL, Romania), ALDE spokesperson on roaming issues, commented:
“As a liberal I welcome the solution of structural measures as a mean to end price regulations which will make it possible for the consumer to have two contracts, one for home services and the other for roaming, each with different operators. This would give access to the local market to other operators – even to virtual mobile networks. More options mean better quality and lower prices and mobile operators will be required to provide consumers with the possibility to access local data services similar to using a Wifi hotspot, at local price.”

Under the current rules in force until June 2012, the maximum roaming charge for making a call is 35 cents and for receiving a call is 11 cents per minute. Sending a text message cross-border is capped at 11 cents while receiving a text is free. The European Parliament’s committee today has proposed the following rate decreases which will have to be negotiated with Council before final agreement:

• Calls made (received) should fall to EUR 0,25 (EUR 0,08 ) cents per minute from 1st July 2012 and to EUR 0,15 cents (0,05 cents) by July 2014.

•The Euro SMS tariff (for messages sent) should be reduced to EUR 0,08 cents from 1 July 2012 and EUR 0,05 cents from 1st July 2014.

• Data roaming to be capped at EUR 0,50 cents per megabyte, and EUR 0,20 cents by 2014.

Further information is available on European Commission website:
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/roaming/tariffs/index_en.htm

Up to £22 million will be spent on helping one million children and young people access vital mental health therapies.

Local MP and Minister of State for Care Services, Paul Burstow, has announced the funding alongside Lib Dem party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

The new investment in the Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies project will be spent over the next three years to expand state-of-the-art psychological therapies and extend training for people like school teachers and youth group leaders.

Currently around two million under 19-year-olds have access to these kinds of services, largely thanks to funding of £32 million that was announced by Paul Burstow last year.

The new £22 million announced this week will help another million children and young people receive the help they need.

Paul Burstow said: “We’re working with young people and staff to start to change the way mental health is delivered by the NHS.

“Half of those with mental health problems first experience symptoms by the age of 14, and three quarters before their mid-20s. This pioneering work will focus on early and effective treatment.

“We know psychological therapies work. My aim is to transform existing mental health services for children so our children get the best treatment possible, from services that are more responsive to their needs.”

Housing developers and housing associations will be on hand at Freshney Place this weekend to discuss homes that are available to buy through the government-backed Low Cost Home Ownership schemes.

Representatives will be at Freshney Place (next to House of Fraser) on Friday and Saturday, March 2 and 3.

With their advice on different schemes and newly built properties, they may be able to help people get onto the property ladder.

More information about the schemes and how to apply can be found on North East Lincolnshire Council’s website at www.nelincs.gov.uk/housing.

Residents living in Grimsby’s Yarborough Ward are being invited to form a panel that will be responsible for allocating funding to local initiatives from the Government’s Community First scheme.

A meeting organised by North East Lincolnshire Council is being held on Thursday, March 1, from 5pm to 6pm at the Yarborough Community Centre on Yarrow Road. Interested residents are being invited to attend the meeting to find out more.

The panel needs to be made up of four to eight residents who either live in the Yarborough ward or who are part of an existing group or organisation that is based, or is working, within the ward.

The panel will be responsible for allocating a proportion of the Government’s £30-million Community First Fund, which has been made available to a limited number of areas throughout the country. The funding will be awarded to local initiatives that are making a difference to their local community and must be match funded.

To find out more, attend the meeting, contact Jamie Dunn on (01472) 325952 or visit www.cdf.org.uk/content/funding-programmes/community-first

The Budget is just three weeks away and the dividing lines are now clear on tax. I have always believed that tax should fall lightly on the low paid and heavily on unearned wealth. Entrepreneurs should be rewarded but speculators profiting from capital gains should not.

At the last election the number one Lib Dem manifesto commitment was to raise the income tax threshold (or the zero rate band, to put it more simply) to £10,000 a year. It was the main demand made of both Labour and the Conservatives in the coalition negotiations. It is now being implemented by the Lib-Con Coalition Government.

Since entering government we have raised the threshold from £6,435 to £7,435. This has lifted over 800,000 people out of paying income tax altogether. It’s been a great benefit to those working part time. Students working in the local shop and parents balancing a part time job with child care have been helped by this policy. The rise in the threshold has also meant a tax cut of £200 for basic rate tax payers – that’s everyone on salaries of up to about £45,000. The government has already announced that from April the threshold will rise again to £8,105. This means that 1.1 million part time workers will have been lifted out of tax.

Now I want the Coalition to go further and faster towards the goal of £10,000 tax free pay.

The Deputy Prime Minister has said raising the threshold will help ease the pressure on family budgets. As co-chair of the Lib Dem Parliamentary Committee on Treasury and Business I have spoken on many occasions of the benefits of this policy. It makes it clear that it pays to be in work, keeping more of your hard earned money. Putting extra money in the pockets of those on low and middle incomes is a direct stimulus to the economy. It puts spending power in the hands of people that can be spent in local shops and with local businesses. The Liberal Democrats made exactly the same argument last November when we pressed for a generous increase in pensions and out of work benefits. They went up by 5.3%, with pensioners getting the biggest cash increase in the history of the state pension.

The Liberal Democrats in government believe that £10,000 tax free pay is the best way of delivering tax fairness in these difficult times. It was right that the Coalition Agreement binned the Conservative election promise to cut inheritance tax. The Chancellor’s first Budget actually increased the ludicrously low rates of capital gains tax left behind by Gordon Brown. In the first two years of the Coalition Government I have been pleased to hear many Conservative MPs supporting these decisions. Many of them can see the real benefit of £10,000 tax free pay to their constituents.

Some Conservatives are now pressing the case for a tax break for married couples. I support marriage and want it extended to gay partners. But I think all relationships are surely founded on love, not the tax system. It is also not immediately clear to me why single people should be made to pay more tax. I want the Coalition to support marriage and families through its social policies, not its tax decisions. It is interesting to note that some MPs who back tax breaks for marriage are the same people who resist appropriate sex and relationships education.

And what of the third most interesting party in British politics? Well the Scottish National Party want to break up the Union and set their own taxes. Of course the Scottish Parliament already has the power to vary the rate of income tax. The SNP has a majority in Edinburgh but I don’t recall them using the tax powers they already possess.

As for Labour, they’ve been all over the place under the two Eds. They say they oppose the rise in VAT but failed three times to vote against it. Now they say they want to cut VAT – which would cost over £12billion, loading the country up with even more debt. Balls even had the cheek to say that the government should speed up the rise in the tax threshold, when he and his colleagues have rubbished the policy for the last two years.

The 2012 Budget is to be delivered in really tough economic times, with turmoil on our doorstep in the Euro Zone. But I believe the Chancellor has a real opportunity to give hope to millions of working people that the age of austerity is not for ever. Raising the income tax threshold is a way of giving people back some of their own money to spend as they choose. It is the Liberal Democrat priority for the Coalition Government and it makes economic sense for the nation.

Humberside Fire and Rescue Service (HFRS) is one of the first Fire and Rescue Services in England to be working with partner organisations to identify residents who may benefit from having sprinkler systems fitted in their homes.

Daryl Oprey, Head of Safety at Humberside Fire and Rescue Service, said:

“A fire can take hold very quickly and the products of combustion can have serious effects within minutes. These systems help by slowing this process making the atmosphere more breathable, increasing the chance of survival.”

On 1 March at 1000hrs a partnership agreement will be signed between HFRS, Hull City Council Adult Social Care, Hull City Council Housing, Hull NHS Trust, Hull Citysafe, ARC Safety, Arco, Kingston Communications, HICA and Age UK at HFRS headquarters. This agreement is a commitment by all of the agencies involved to fund and/or support the initiative either financially or by referring those who are most vulnerable to death or serious injury resulting from a fire in their home to the Service.

The Service is working closely with its partners in this project to identify residents who are most at risk of having a fire in their home. Dedicated Community Safety staff from the Service deliver home safety visits to the high risk groups to provide information and advice to all residents and businesses about staying safe from fire. As part of this partnership funding has been set aside specifically to make the lives of the “high risk” residents safer, which may include the installation of sprinkler systems.

Daryl continued:

“Currently very few domestic sprinkler systems are installed in the Humberside area. However we need to increase the scale of these installations and the Service is committed to doing so. We will continue to work in partnership with other organisations to identify and install these life saving systems where they are needed the most. We do not have the advantage yet of the recently passed legislation by the Welsh Assembly which makes it a legal requirement for all new build domestic properties to have sprinklers fitted. Even so most of our vulnerable are not in new build premises and these stand alone mobile units do provide an immediate means to fire fires whilst awaiting the arrival of our firefighting crews.

MEPs today voted for new rules which will further reduce the cost of mobile phone calls whilst abroad. The rules also impose a cap on the cost of data roaming for the first time.

North East MEP Fiona Hall was among those who voted in favour of the new price caps, which will replace existing limits when they expire in June.

Fiona commented after the vote:

“People travelling on leisure or business are rightfully outraged by the rip-off cost of using a mobile abroad. Data roaming fees are especially expensive as things stand, and with people increasingly reliant on Facebook and Twitter to stay in touch with each other, capping data costs for the first time is an important step forward.

“Until there is more competition in the market, we must protect consumers by capping prices at a sensible level that encourages business across borders and prevents people being hit with a hefty bill when they get back from their holiday.”

Negotiations between the European Parliament and national governments in the Council on a final agreement on the new roaming regulation will start in the next week.

Under the current rules, in force until June 2012, the maximum roaming charge for making a call is 29 pence and for receiving a call is 9 pence per minute. Sending a text message cross-border is capped at 9 pence while receiving a text is free.

Police across the Humberside area are urging motorists and their passengers to buckle up as part of a forcewide casualty reduction campaign being launched on Thursday 01 March 2012.

From 01 March until 31 March police officers will be working closely with Safer Roads Humber enforcement officers, paying increased attention to seat belt offences with offenders being prosecuted and advice leaflets handed out.

There will be additional high visibility policing activity across the force, particularly at locations identified as collision hot spots, with the aim being to increase seat belt wearing compliance levels.

According to government research; as a result of drivers and passengers wearing seat belts to comply with legislation, 370 deaths and 7,000 serious injuries are prevented nationally each year. National seat belt compliance surveys (local figures are not available) show around 85 per cent of front seat occupants and 50 per cent of rear seat occupants, wear seat belts in vehicles.

PC Keith Ward, casualty reduction officer for Humberside Police said:

“The message we are trying to get across is an important one and could help to possibly save the lives of many people each year.

“I want to ask everyone who gets into a vehicle puts their seat belts on, by doing this the severity of injury in the event of a road traffic collision can be reduced dramatically.

“Both drivers and passengers should be aware of the seat belt and child restraint legislation that has been in effect since 2006 but, although there are a few exemptions, the basic rule is that all drivers and passengers must wear seat belts.”

Anyone caught without a seatbelt will be prosecuted by way of a fixed penalty fine of £60 or served with a summons.

The wearing of Seat Belt Regulations of 1993, regulation 14(3) then made it an offence to fail to wear a seat belt when travelling as the driver or passenger in a motor vehicle.

On 18 September, 2006 new seat belt/child restraint legislation was introduced. The legislation can be summarised as follows:

• Children under 3 years MUST use the child restraint appropriate for their weight in any vehicle (including vans and other goods vehicles). There is only one exception: – child under 3 may travel unrestrained in the rear of a taxi if the correct restraint is not available.

• Rear facing baby seats MUST NOT be used in a seat protected by a frontal air-bag unless the air-bag has been deactivated manually or automatically.

• In vehicles where seat belts are fitted, children aged three years to 135cm in height MUST use the appropriate child restraint.

• Front Seat – correct child restraint must be used.

• Rear Seat – correct child restraint must be used.

• Must use adult belt if correct child restraint is not available in a taxi, for a short distance in an unexpected necessity, or if two occupied child restraints prevent fitting a third.

Humberside Crimestoppers have launched an eight week regional “Help scrap the metal thieves” campaign in partnership with Humberside Police, other local police forces, scrap dealers and businesses in order to tackle the issue of metal theft.

Metal theft costs the UK

economy £770m each year. It puts lives at risk and causes misery to the communities affected by damage to property, power loss and disrupted telecommunications.

Metal theft is a serious crime and offenders risk a fine or prison sentence.

Criminals can also find themselves counting the cost of their actions; some have even paid with their own lives or sustained life changing injuries stealing metal.

The campaign encourages local people to assist authorities in bringing metal thieves to justice by reporting information about offenders, crimes and stolen metal to Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

The campaign will run for eight weeks and in Humberside will include advertising within buses, a radio sponsorship of the weather feature on KCFM and marketing literature being distributed in the local community.

A launch event took place on Tuesday 28 February 2012 at the Country Park Inn in Hessle. This included local representatives from Humberside Police, local authorities, scrap dealers, businesses and community victims. The media were also in attendance.

At the event the contributors reiterated that metal theft is a mindless crime which has a big impact on communities and they gave examples of how authorities are dealing with metal theft to ensure offenders don’t get away with their crimes.

Chief Inspector David Houchin, Humberside Police metal theft lead said: “We are delighted to be working with Crimestoppers to encourage local people to report information about metal theft incidents and highlight the community impact of the offence.

“Metal theft in any form is damaging to society and has a big impact on local neighbourhoods. It has increased steadily over recent years driven by increasing commodity prices. Metal theft is now falling but there is still a lot to do and I welcome the support from Crimestoppers in our drive to reduce it further.

“In response to the problem locally, Humberside Police and our partners are committed to tackling this type of offence and have introduced a forcewide operation to bring offenders to justice and continue to work closely in partnership with scrap metal dealers.

“The message to the public is simple. We are doing all we can to catch metal thieves, however they also have a role to play by reporting information about crimes, or those offending in order to eradicate the crime across the region. Therefore If you know who is responsible for metal theft tell Humberside Police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 11, or online at www.crimestoppers-uk.org.”

North East Lincolnshire Council, housing developers and associations will have a stall behind House of Fraser with information about low cost home ownership schemes to assist first time buyers.

Seven developers received government funding for the FirstBuy equity loan scheme and have new build homes on sites across North East Lincolnshire. Three of these housing developers will be taking part in the event; Cyden Homes, Linden Homes, Peter Ward Homes.

Housing associations will also be available for advice regarding new low cost home ownership properties in various sites across North East Lincolnshire. Acis currently have rent-to-buy property on a new development on Frederick Street Grimsby and Shoreline Housing Partnership has shared ownership on the Freshney Green development. Longhurst & Havelock will also be attending the event.

For further information about the schemes, or for an assessment contact My4walls, the local HomeBuy agent, at www.my4walls.co.uk

More information about local affordable home ownership properties, HomeBuy and FirstBuy schemes visit the North East Lincolnshire website www.nelincs.gov.uk/housing

Local HomeBuy properties are also advertised on www.homechoicelincs.org.uk

More information about owning your own home is available on the DirectGov website www.direct.gov.uk/