Councillor Neil Matthews has become the new Mayor of Hythe. Neil was unanimously elected at the Annual Council Meeting on Thursday, 4th May 2006. Congratulations to Neil from all at Shepway Liberal Democrats.
Liberal Democrats have achieved a higher vote share than in the General Election a year ago - coming ahead of the Labour Party for only the second time. The BBC projected national share of the vote:
If you were going to come up with a good working definition of a "bad news week", a diary from the Labour Party over the past few days would probable do it. A Labour Health Secretary being mauled by a nurses conference, the Home Secretary admitting to "losing track" of prisoners without considering them for deportation, and John Prescott. The less said about the latter, the better - it makes Season feel queasy.
The latest Government figure show crime in South Kent (covering Shepway district) increasing, with reported robberies up a huge 30% and violent crime up 6.4% in the last year. Overall, crime figures have dropped slightly, mainly due to a large fall (13.1%) in the burglary rate.
![Menzies (Ming) Campbell [Photo: LDD Pics]](/fileadmin/_processed_/e/7/csm_menzies-ming-campbell-photo-ldd-pics-1_7a2ac9e833.png)
In a hard-hitting speech today, Menzies Campbell has spelt out the Liberal Democrat challenge on the environment. He outlined five key principles to form a cross party agreement of tackling climate change, and criticised "A failure of nerve from the government. And a surfeit of spin from the Conservatives."
The latest on government figures released today show that almost 30,000 5-7 year olds are being taught in classes of 31 or over, an increase on 2005. The Liberal Democrats are calling for class sizes to be cut especially for the youngest pupils.
Bob Worcester of MORI has revealed that the Liberal Democrats are now on 28% in the areas that are having elections next Thursday. This is one the highest ever ratings for the Liberal Democrats and with still a week to go before the local elections bodes well for the Liberal Democrats.
Both the Lib Dems and Folkestone MP Michael Howard have called on Charles Clarke to resign after he admitted losing track of 1,023 foreign prisoners who should have been considered for deportation. The missing prisoners include three murderers and nine rapists.
Lib Dem support has surged by 3% while Labour's support among the public has slumped to its lowest level since the 1987 general election, according to a new poll. The Tories' position is the same as last month - meaning the real winners from Labour's slump are the Liberal Democrats.
The Post Office network is crumbling. Over the last two decades, post offices have been closing at a rate of over 300 a year. Under the last Conservative Government, 3,500 local post offices closed, and under Labour another 4,000 have closed, hitting communities across the country.
From 18 April there will be works on Risborough Lane for around 8 weeks from the junction with Risborough Way, Cheriton (near the railway bridge) up to the junction with Mackenzie Drive. During this time there will be temporary traffic lights in place, and there is very likely to be disruption to traffic.
Eurotunnel has been forced to postpone its full-year results, admitting that its auditors had initiated an "alert procedure" over the continuity of its operations in 2007. It made a net loss last year of "slightly above" €300m (£207m) compared with one of €836m in 2004.
