Free early education will be extended to 140,000 disadvantaged two-year- olds, and parents will be able to access the free entitlement more flexibly, under plans published by the Government on Friday 11th November 2011.

In Luton, around 700 two-year olds are expected to benefit from the proposals.

Liberal Democrat Children’s Minister, Sarah Teather, announced a consultation today on how this commitment will be implemented. The plans include proposals to help parents and children alike by making the free entitlement of 15 hours per week of early education more flexible, so it can be taken between 7am and 7pm across two days instead of the current three days.

Commenting, leader of Luton Liberal Democrats, Cllr. David Franks said:

“Helping 700 two-year-old Luton children from the poorest backgrounds in our area will benefit them for years to come. High quality early education is the key to making a difference early on in a child’s life and helping to make Britain a fairer and more equal society.

“Improving social mobility is a Liberal Democrat priority in Government and targeting early education at those who stand to benefit most is important to achieve this goal. It will be an integral part to disadvantaged children’s healthy development. This means they’re not falling behind before they have even started primary school.”

Commenting further, Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg said:

“I want us to give every child the best possible start – so free education for toddlers from the most disadvantaged homes will now be a right and not a privilege.

“Crucially the extra care will be flexible and easy to access. Parents across the country are bending over backwards to balance work and home. The Coalition wants to help in whatever way we can.”

Luton Council’s staff pension fund is running at a deficit and the shortfall has grown from £122m in 2008 to £180M at 31st March 2011. At a meeting on Tuesday 1st November 2011 Luton Council’s ruling Labour councillors voted through a resolution saying Council employees should not be asked to make a bigger contribution to their pension scheme in order to stop the deficit from getting bigger each year.

“Luton Council’s net spend on services in the year to 31st march was £265M,” says Liberal Democrat leader on the Council, David Franks. “That puts the £180M pension fund gap in perspective.”

“The current gap between what the pension fund needs to honour its commitments and the funding it holds is £180M, and that’s just the deficit. In spite of the Council putting £25M a year into two pension schemes the gap on the main staff fund is just getting bigger.”

“They don’t even have a plan to reduce the problem. Yes there is a pension fund reserve and it has the grand total of £2.8M saved up. That will not go very far.”

“The problem is so big that if they decided to pay off the deficit through a ten year plan it would need a 30% Council Tax increase which would cost the average Band D Taxpayer in Luton an extra £457 a year. Yet Labour Councillors are complaining because the government says staff should be asked to pay a little more to hold on to what most people say is a very generous pension scheme.”

“Anyone who thinks this situation is sustainable is living on a different planet to the rest of us.”

A key ingredient in the coalition agreement, included at the insistence of the Liberal Democrats, was a Pupil Premium paid to schools and based on the numbers of their pupils who qualify for free school meals. The government announced last week that Luton schools have been allocated £487.55 per qualifying pupil and this gives Luton schools a total of £3,642,000 for the current financial year.

The government will not dictate how the extra funding is spent so long as it is targeted at disadvantaged children. Schools could spend it on extra staff, on one-to-one tuition or whatever they decide will be most effective.

“There is a clear and well established connection between entitlement to free school meals and underachieving,” said Liberal Democrat leader David Franks.

“Now every head teacher in Luton knows how much their school is to receive and can start to plan the best way to invest it in our children’s future.”

“By helping schools to give extra support to the most disadvantaged pupils we will see improved learning opportunities and higher standards for all.”

“The pupil premium, targeted at children from low income families, was a key Liberal Democrat input into the coalition agreement and I am delighted to see this great boost for local schools.”

Proposed parking fee rises of up to 50 percent that were due to hit motorists on 1 November may now be put on hold after Luton Council’s Overview & Scrutiny Board formally asked the ruling Labour Executive to reconsider their decision.

• Fees agreed by the Labour Executive in a decision last month included:
• A 25% rise in the cost of parking in Bute Street on Saturdays, from £1.60 to £2.00
• Rises of over 20% for 2 hours weekday parking in Bute Street or Vicarage Street
• Parking in Wenlock Street Car Park on Saturdays costing 50% more
• A hike of over 20% in weekday parking charges in Hitchin Road Car Park – to £4.00
• 11 different on-street parking tariffs with rises averaging about 30%

At a meeting on Wednesday 12 October, councillors from all 3 political groups and 2 independent Scrutiny Board members agreed to refer the decision back to the Executive with a request that:

• The highest rises, especially those over 20 percent, should be revised downwards
• Local shops and businesses should be consulted before any further increases
• Car Park and On-street parking fees should be simplified, with fewer different rate

Evidence supplied by Council officers to the meeting to try to justify the rises revealed that some proposed rates for 1 or 2 hours parking were higher than in Milton Keynes.

Barnfield Lib Dem councillor Martin Pantling, who ‘called in’ the decision, said:

“ I’m delighted that the Overview and Scrutiny Board, comprising councillors of all parties and independent members, has rejected the huge rises that Labour were proposing.”

“ People are already being deterred from shopping locally by closed roads and diversions, so the last thing that shops, businesses or residents need is for the Council to start profiteering just before Christmas, having consulted absolutely nobody.”

“ The Labour Executive must now decide whether to accept the clear steer they’ve been given or insist on making £60,000 a year more from rises of up to 10 times inflation. I hope they’ll limit the charges for now, then aim for fewer charging bands which will be more cost-efficient to collect. This will help Luton residents, shops and businesses.”