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Martin Tod backs NUS campaign against higher top-up fees

Winchester Prospective MP, Martin Tod, has signed up to support the National Union of Students (NUS) campaign Funding Our Future campaign. The campaign believes that the education funding system is too complicated to be helpful to students. Instead, the NUS are proposing a single, simple student finance support system that can be a central distribution mechanism for all finance questions and solutions.

Best pics from Freshers Fayre

The Government launched a review of higher education funding on 9 November 2009 which is expected to announce top-up fees of up to £10,000, an increase that both the Liberal Democrats and the NUS are vigorously against.

Commenting, Martin Tod said:

“Everyone who has the ability and desire to go to university should be able to, and the price of study should not be a hindrance.

“The Liberal Democrats have strongly opposed top-up fees and want to phase out tuition fees. We are strongly opposed to any increase. The Government should not be saddling students with even more debt. Instead we need one simple, centralised system of student finance that increases accessibility to further education, rather than acting as a further barrier to it.

“Higher education funding must be based on fairness and access to all, and I am therefore delighted to support the NUS campaign.”

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Winchester unemployment up again – with record high levels of long-term unemployed

The number of people claiming Job Seekers Allowance in the Winchester district rose again in January 2010 by 78 to 1,283 – the highest figure since August 2009 and the second highest figure since February 1997. This more than reversed the decline in December 2009.

The level of unemployment amongst the under 25s remained higher than any other age-group, although the increase in unemployment came mostly from people in their 40s and 50s.

The number of long-term unemployed (i.e. those claiming JSA for more than 12 months) rose 20 to 110, more than twice the level in December 2008 – and the highest figure since July 1999.

Martin Tod, Liberal Democrat Prospective MP for Winchester, commented:

“We’re not out of the woods yet. Although the unemployment figures were good for December, they’ve got worse in January.  There’s still a worryingly high level of unemployment amongst the young, and worrying increases amongst people in their 40s and 50s. It’s also a concern that increasing numbers of people have been unemployed for more than a year. The recovery is still very weak and there’s a real possibility that we could go back into recession. The last thing we need is a slash and burn approach to public spending, or we could end up seeing a bad situation get even worse.”

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Winchester Lib Dem Prospective MP backs wind turbine plans

Liberal Democrat Prospective MP for Winchester, Martin Tod, has backed proposals for 3 wind turbines to power a local nursery business outside Crawley near Winchester.

Derek Taylor & Martin Tod discuss wind turbines
Martin Tod near the site of the proposed turbine with Derek Taylor, who is applying to build the three turbines.

Local business, Kirton Farm Nurseries, on the Stockbridge Road near Crawley, is home of the Hairy Pot Plant Company, which provides eco friendly, sustainable and ethically produced cottage garden plants and herbs grown in hairy coir pots to individual businesses across much of the south of England.

Commenting on the plans, Martin Tod, said:

The draft plans are excellent. I wish some of the ones we saw for buildings in the city were as good.  It’s a brilliant location with lots of wind and is barely visible to nearby residents.  This is exactly the kind of countryside innovation we should be supporting.  The Winchester district has one of the higher carbon footprints of any area in the UK and we need to be taking a lead with this kind of initiative.

Details of the plans are available online at http://www.kirtonfarm.co.uk/

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Environment Latest News

Lib Dem Campaign Secures Funding for Park Home Pilot Study

The ongoing campaign by Winchesters Liberal Democrats has secured funding for a pilot study, on Park Home insulation and heating efficiency technologies, to be situated in Winchester.

The Winchester MP and Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidates for Winchester and the Meon Valley, Martin Tod and Liz Leffman, launched their Park Homes campaign in October and since then have contacted all Park Home residents within the constituency.

By bringing together National Energy Action and Winchester City Council they have been able to identify appropriate sites and start the ball rolling for a pilot study to get underway. It means that some Park Home residents in Flowerdown Park, Littleton, will soon be benefiting from new technologies aimed at reducing emissions, reducing bills and better insulating their homes.

The aim of the project is to demonstrate that low cost methods are available to help insulate Park Homes so that they may be included in Government schemes. At present Park Homes are classified in such a way that they are excluded from the vast majority of Government assistance to those in fuel poverty, such as Warm Front.

While Mark Oaten has been raising this issue in Parliament through Early Day Motions and in debates, locally discussions were under way to site one of the pilot studies taking place across the country within the Winchester constituency.

Mark Oaten commented:

“This is all about showing the Government that the technologies exist to help Park Home owners the same as any other home owner. Excluding them because of legal technicalities just isn’t fair.

“I’m pleased to say that there does appear to be some movement from the Governments side but this needs to happen faster. The latest cold snap reminds us all again, if that was needed, just how important it is to be able to afford to heat your home.

Martin Tod, PPC for Winchester, added:

“Winchester has one of the highest carbon footprints in the country so ensuring we can all do our bit to change this is vital. At the same time far too many people are still living in fuel poverty.

“So I am delighted that Winchester has now got the funding to take part in a pilot study for new insulation technologies. Lets hope that the Government sit up and take notice of the results and make the necessary changes to their schemes.

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Chandlers Ford Winchester

Making progress on ambulance numbers

I was very pleased to see that Will Hancock, the Chief Executive of the South Central Ambulance service, has admitted that there’s a problem with the number of ambulances we have in Hampshire.

Back in September, the Chairman of the Trust said something very similar when I challenged him at their Annual General Meeting (as reported in the Echo):

To achieve all our targets we need more ambulances, more crews and more money.

Having the problem recognised from the top is a good first step.  Now we need to see some action to fix it.