All Councils have to have a Food Law Enforcement Service Plan and the one adopted by the Labour Council in July stated that the Council would not meet its statutory obligations, that 124 medium high risk food businesses due a hygiene intervention will not get one and included a 30% reduction in microbiological examinations & analysis.

The government Food Standards Agency insists microbiological examination & analysis of food including inspection for, and identification of, insects is a priority.

“The Council’s Food Law Enforcement Service Plan is already unsafe and we tried to get them to change it last July,” says Liberal Democrat leader Cllr David Franks. “To cut back even further must present a serious health risk to Luton residents.”

“Most food establishments in Luton operate to very high standards of hygiene and produce & sell perfectly safe high quality food to satisfied customers, but sadly not all achieve the required standards.”

“Just look around the town, you cannot avoid seeing the explosion in numbers of fast food shops and it’s the Council’s job to make sure they all live up to the high standards of the best. Yet with a service plan which says the Council will not meet its statutory obligations they are now planning even more cuts.”

“Horrible, food hygiene related health problems like e-coli are on the increase. People die of e-coli. Yet Luton’s Labour Council plans to cut back on food premises inspections at a time when risks are increasing and the number of fast food outlets is rapidly increasing.”

The plan will now be looked at by the Council’s Scrutiny Board which can make recommendations for changes if it feels these are necessary.

All local authorities employ lawyers to give legal advice on how they deliver services to their local residents & businesses and to make sure they stay within the law. The joint services plan, put together by the Chief Executives of the four Councils, was to save money by having just one legal department keeping an eye on all four Councils.

Luton Council’s Labour Executive Committee was due to give approval for formal consultation with the staff involved on the final details of the scheme this month (December 2011) but, at the last minute, the whole scheme was scrapped because the other three Councils decided they did not want to go ahead with it.

“I have not yet had a full briefing on why the other three councils did not want to work with Luton,” said Liberal Democrat leader, councillor David Franks. “Central Bedfordshire & Milton Keynes councils are Conservative run and Bedford has a Liberal Democrat directly elected mayor. Labour councillors in Luton have a very bad record on working with other parties. There have been a few occasions in the years I have been on the Council when no single party had a majority. Every time Labour refused to get involved in joint administrations, to put aside party interests and do what is best for the town. They always seem to put Party interests first.”

The visit was part of the launch of a joint initiative between the government and the automotive industry called See Inside Manufacturing to encourage young people to consider a career in the manufacturing industry.

You can find out more about this visit on the BIS website and this is how the local media reported it.

Lord Hussain with the Deputy Prime Minister at the diversity event (Photo by Jonathan Wallace)

Lord Qurban Hussain, who is also a councillor in Luton, was a key speaker at an event organised by the Liberal Democrat’s National Diversity Unit at the Party’s Spring conference.

The event took place on Saturday 12th March in the Leopold Hotel in Sheffield. It was held to underline the Liberal Democrat’s committment to diversity in their candidates for election and their support for future leaders from under-represented groups. Lord Hussain spoke about his experience as a candidate for the Liberal Democrats in Luton and the importance of ensuring that people from all of the different communities within the UK get a fair chance to participate in politics.

The event was also attended by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

See more photos of this event in our gallery.

Andrew Duff MEP

Andrew Duff, Lib Dem MEP for the East of England commenting on the departure of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak said;

‘The departure of Hosni Mubarak is good news, long overdue. The European Union must now do everything we can to boost the fortunes of those in Egypt who long for a genuine secular liberal democracy where the rule of civilian law is paramount and the military plays a subordinate role. EU aid can be adjusted to support such democratic reforms.”

“The new Egypt must continue to be at peace with Israel. An Egypt truly transformed into a modern democracy that respected fundamental rights of all its citizens would even set a path that Israel itself would be prepared to follow.”