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Wera Hobhouse

Wera Hobhouse

Ward: Norden
Party: Liberal Democrat

Address:
Carr Hill House, Shawclough Road
Rochdale
OL12 6LG

Tel: 01706 632904

Email: wera.hobhouse@rochdale.gov.uk

Some Things Never Change

The debate over the future of our Arts and Heritage services is ongoing maybe a start to make Link4Life think again!
The Chairman for Link4life has called my remarks ‘outrageous’, ‘ludicrous’, ‘untrue’ and even ‘illegal’. I was even summoned to the...

Date posted: 01/04/2011

A Good Kicking

A Good Kicking for whom?
I woke up again this morning to the headline that the Liberal Democrats got a good kicking, this time in yesterday’s Barnsley by- election. Since Lib Dem bashing has become a national sport, journalists didn’t have to think long to come up with that...

Date posted: 04/03/2011

The guns are out!


Should I feel flattered that the Leader of the Council took it upon himself to write a long essay not even 24 hours after my diary entry yesterday!
I must have hit a nerve!
The Liberal Democrat group did put forward amendments and suggestions how to rebalance the Link4Life budget since last...

Date posted: 25/02/2011

A Borough of Philistines

The budget for 2001-12 has been passed at Full Council. It has been a difficult budget which councillors from all political parties together with officers had worked on for more than 18 months knowing that the Council had to make ten of millions of savings in future years.
Therefore it was...

Date posted: 24/02/2011

Norden Old Library new venue for my surgery this Saturday

New venue for my Councillor's surgery at Norden Old Library this Saturday
I am now holding my surgery at the Norden Old Library every month on the second Saturday at 10.30 am.
In November the new community rooms on the ground floor of the Norden Old Library opened to the public. Since then a...

Date posted: 11/02/2011

Seven Years of Political Change

Seven years ago, Rochdale Council was run by Labour. Six years ago, it was an all-party run Council with a Liberal Democrat leader, 5 years ago, it was run by a Labour / Conservative coalition, 4 years ago by the Liberal Democrats on their own, and for the last few months it has been a Liberal...

Date posted: 14/12/2010

Extra Millions for Rochdale, Heywood and Middleton Schools

I welcome the announcement that Rochdale, Heywood and Middleton schools will receive around £3.3 million extra funding next year thanks to Liberal Democrat plans for a ‘pupil premium’.
The coalition government has announced the details of the policy, which was one of the Liberal...

Date posted: 13/12/2010

Seven councillors resign from Liberal Democrats

Over the last two weeks the Borough’s Liberal Democrat Council group has received a setback. First five councillors resigned after a controversial group meeting, during which they called for a vote of no confidence in the Leader, Irene Davidson, who was in hospital after major surgery.
Then...

Date posted: 05/12/2010

Hospital Scandal

A shocking national news story this week reports that Stafford Hospital is at last subject to a public inquiry after years of complaints from patients and relations and Health campaigners

A private report from 2009 condemned conditions saying that is had ‘caused hundreds of avoidable...

Date posted: 08/11/2010

Quangos

192 quangos are to be abolished. It could be argued that it doesn't quite match expectations of a big bonfire but considering that there are some 900 'Quasi Autonomous Non Governmental Organisations' it seems a reasonable start. Official statements stress that the list is not complete and the...

Date posted: 14/10/2010

Child Benefit, Sir Philip Green, Tuition Fees and all that

The only thing everybody is now talking about is government spending and how to reduce it. As the torch is shining into more and more areas and on those who will be affected – mothers, students, benefit seekers, public sectors workers and so on- we hear the inevitable OUCH NOT ME ! as if...

Date posted: 14/10/2010

Conservative Party Conference 2010

Observers of the Conservative Party Conference comment that so far it seems strangely subdued. I am not at the conference so I am not a good judge.
When I am at a Lib Dem conference I often find that what happens there and what is reported in the media doesn’t sound as if it is the same...

Date posted: 05/10/2010

'The war on motorists is over'?

Shortly after the election in May Philip Hammond, the new Secretary for Transport proudly announced that ‘the war on motorists would be over under the new government’.
He was being interviewed this morning on the Today programme with ‘Lord’ Prescot also in the studio. I am...

Date posted: 02/10/2010

Is Ed red?

Labour has elected a new leader and the media seems to be obsessed about two things: How is his brother Dave surviving the shock of being beaten by his younger brother and Is Labour Lurching to the Left?
The first question is one of those pointless media exercises. But I find the second question...

Date posted: 28/09/2010

Back from Conference

On Mondya afternoon Nick Clegg delivered his eagerly awaited conference speech. There had been many specultions about how the new Deputy PM would pitch his first speech to Lib Dem grassroot members. Would it be triumphant or defensive? Would he shout from the roof tops about Lib Dem achievements or...

Date posted: 22/09/2010

Sir Cyril Smith

The passing away of Sir Cyril on Friday morning marks the end of an era for Rochdale, the national party and particularly for us local Liberal Democrats.
The word ‘big’ is not too big to describe Cyril and I don’t refer to his physical size. By the time I met Cyril in 2005 he...

Date posted: 06/09/2010

Save our Maternity Services

The decision taken by the last Labour government to close maternity services at both the Infirmary and at Fairfield was called in for review by the new Coalition government. For my own residents in the Norden ward, the important thing is that maternity services are not lost from both our local...

Date posted: 25/07/2010

Lenny Barn Playing Fields

A public meeting took place in the Town Hall on Thursday 22nd July about the loss of Playing Fields on Lenny Barn and proposals to swap land in three different locations in compensation. I called the meeting following concerns from local residents who were not satisfied that the proposals were in...

Date posted: 23/07/2010

The mess Labour left us in

I am sure I am not the only one who finds it astonishing that our Labour MP Jim Dobbin managed to write a whole letter on the budget without one single mention of the terrible financial situation that his Government left us with. Not one mention of the £5000 a second that our country is...

Date posted: 17/07/2010

Building Schools for the Future

Last week the Education Secretary Michael Gove announced which projects under the ‘Building Schools For the Future' (BSF) funding pot would be saved and which ones would be scrapped. All our Rochdale Borough projects are saved which is fantastic news! Our new Rochdale Labour MP and our new...

Date posted: 13/07/2010