Councillor Richard Harker, executive board member for education at Leeds City Council, said: “We are transforming learning across Leeds through new and refurbished state-of-the-art buildings. To be nominated for these three awards is a recognition of the successes achieved so far by city council and Education Leeds officers and the effort put in by many different partners.” 

Leeds’ Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme has been shortlisted for the first national annual awards to celebrate the transformation of education across the country.  The submissions for three prestigious Excellence in BSF National Awards will compete with others from 19 nominated local authorities from across England which have been selected by judges from the design community, construction industry, educationalists, students and BSF delivery partners.  

The three categories Leeds has been shortlisted in at the Excellence in BSF Awards are: Innovation in ICT (competing against Haringey and Lambeth); Best School Team (competing against Brislington Enterprise College, Bristol) and; Best Operational LEP (competing against Newcastle and STaG - South Tyneside and Gateshead).  Innovation in ICT includes a flexible, creative model for teaching and learning which supports students, the family and their local community, highlighted by the state-of the-art equipment and facilities - such as iPods, PSPs, interactive whiteboards, camcorders and media resources - as well as access to anytime anywhere world-wide learning resources via the school network.  The Best School Team award recognises how teachers and other school staff have made the best use of the new facilities for the benefit of young people. At Cockburn College of Arts, performance, achievement and attainment have improved in a number of key indicators during the school’s transition under the BSF programme. In 2005, 35 per cent of young people got 5+ A*-C GCSEs. In 2008, that figure rose to 53 per cent.  

Leeds City Council’s and Education Leeds’ involvement with its partners the E4L Consortium and the LEP (Local Education Partnership)*, which resulted in nearly £40m being saved through an efficient procurement process, is evidence of strong and effective partnership working within the BSF programme.  

The awards have been organised by Partnerships for Schools (PfS), which is delivering BSF across the UK, and will take place in London on 26 November.

Liberal  Democrats in Moortown & Meanwood have welcomed a decision by the Government to abandon proposals to hand over the payment of pensions and benefits from post offices to a private company.

The Liberal Democrats have consistently been ahead of the game on economic issues. Here is a list of ten things we called for first, and which have now either been implemented or taken on board by at least one of the other two main parties.

Northern Rock nationalisation - it was clear to us that this was unavoidable in November last year. It took the Government until February to act.

Independence of the Bank of England - longstanding Lib Dem policy. First Labour implemented it, over Tory opposition. Now even the Tories support it.

Recapitalisation of the banks - Vince Cable was the first politician to call for this. Three days later the Chancellor announced that this would be going ahead.

Tackling the bonus culture - in May we were the first party to put forward proposals for tackling the harmful bonus culture in the financial sector. By the autumn, ministers and the Tory leadership had realised the situation was indefensible and changed their tune.

Regulation of ’sale and rent back’ agreements - this was part of our ‘7 point plan’ for dealing with personal debt, launched in September 2003. The Government announced on 22nd October this year that they were finally looking into this.

New court guidance to make repossession a ‘last resort’, obliging lenders to exhaust all alternatives first - another measure in the Government’s 22 nd. October announcement that the Lib Dems had been calling for for more than six months.

Changes to capital adequacy laws to require banks to hold more capital in periods of boom and less in recession - we called for this back in January 2003. Now the Conservatives back it too.

Ban on short selling of financial stocks - Vince Cable urged this on September 16th (having also raised the issue in July). The Government did not act until three days later, once the Americans had announced restrictions.

National network of financial advice centres - since 2003 we have been calling for a network of local and generic financial advice, particularly for those on lower incomes, funded by a levy on the financial services industry. Earlier this year the Tories announced their support for this too, using almost exactly the same language.

Curbs on irresponsible lending - a commonplace sentiment now, but we called for “the publication by the Government of strict measures for responsible lending, which lenders must be required to observe” back in September 2003.

More than a third of pensioners are receiving the wrong benefit payments as a result of mistakes in the system, the Government has admitted.  Councillor Richard Harker “The benefits system is now so complicated that it would appear that officials cannot cope with it.  Pensioners deserve better.The government has had to admit that more than a million elderly are not receiving benefits they are entitled to. It has been estimated that elderly people have missed out on £90 million.  That the errors were substantially caused by official error and not wrong information.Jenny Willott,  Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesman, said: “Pensioners will continue to miss out and be put off claiming unless it can be made to work effectively. “The Government must end complicated benefits for pensioners and introduce a universal, higher state pension which increases in line with earnings - it’s the only way to deliver a fair deal for all pensioners.”

The Cenotaph in Leeds city centre has had conservation work carried out on it ahead of Remembrance Sunday which this year marks the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War.  The £15,000 project on the war memorial on Victoria Gardens on The Headrow involves work being carried out to clean the stonework and bronze and repair areas which have suffered erosion over time.  

Funded by Leeds City Council’s Parks and Countryside Service and City Centre Leeds, the work has been carried out by a team of specialists whose experience includes working on the Statue of Liberty in New York. It will be completed in time for the annual service of remembrance on Sunday November 9th, when civic dignitaries will join war veterans, current servicemen and women and members of the public at the Cenotaph to honour those who have fallen in all wars serving their country.  

The Leeds cenotaph was designed by famous Designed by famous London sculptor Henry Charles Fehr, the Leeds Cenotaph features the female figure of Peace on one side and St George defeating the dragon on the other. Above them both is an angel depicted carrying six roses – each representing 150,000 UK troops who died in the First World War.  When it was first unveiled by the Earl of Harewood in 1922 it was originally located in City Square, but when the layout of City Square was altered it was moved to its present location on The Headrow in 1936.