HLF is making at least £1m available per year until 2019 to provide grants of between £3,000 and £10,000. The money will enable groups across the . . . → Read More: Torbay MP urges communities to apply for £6m WWI funding]]> Adrian Sanders is urging communities in Torbay to apply for the new £6m First World War: then and now fund, which the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has launched.

HLF is making at least £1m available per year until 2019 to provide grants of between £3,000 and £10,000. The money will enable groups across the UK to explore, conserve and share their First World War heritage and deepen their understanding of the impact of the conflict.

Communities can apply for grants for a variety of different projects, which could include:

• Researching, identifying and recording local heritage
• Creating a community archive or collection
• Developing new interpretations of heritage through exhibitions, trails, smartphone apps, etc.
• Researching, writing and performing creative material based on heritage sources
• Conservation of war memorials

Commenting, Adrian said:

“The First World War had an unprecedented impact on our communities, with so many young men leaving for the front. Few people are alive now who can give us a first-hand account of this period but the legacy they have left behind can still be felt and seen.

“The Heritage Lottery Fund will allow our communities to mark the centenary. I want to encourage those who want to commemorate the centenary to get in touch with the HLF and see if they can tap into this new fund.”

Adrian, who is a Vice-President of the League, attended the launch of their Manifesto to End Snaring and spoke at length about the need to ban snaring.

The Manifesto aims to bring an end . . . → Read More: Adrian Sanders supports snaring ban]]> Torbay MP Adrian Sanders has given his support to the League Against Cruel Sports in their campaign to end snaring.

Adrian, who is a Vice-President of the League, attended the launch of their Manifesto to End Snaring and spoke at length about the need to ban snaring.

The Manifesto aims to bring an end to the production, sale and use of snares in the UK, and also highlights the failures in the current code of practice and suggests non-lethal alternatives that can be used.

The League are also petitioning the government to bring in a ban and have currently received more than 28,000 signatures.

Adrian Commented:

“Snaring is cruel, unnecessary and its indiscriminate nature is intolerable. I hope that this Manifesto and the overwhelming support for the petition can encourage the Government that a ban on snaring is necessary.”

For more information on the League’s campaign, visit http://www.league.org.uk/content/752/Snaring-Campaign-2013.

You can sign the petition at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/290/102/875/.

Local Newspaper Week is organised by the Newspaper Society to highlight the importance of local journalism.

Adrian commented:

“It is important that we are all supportive of our local newspapers as they are at the heart of community news. They report . . . → Read More: Adrian supports local newspapers]]> Torbay MP Adrian Sanders has today given his support to Local Newspaper Week.

Local Newspaper Week is organised by the Newspaper Society to highlight the importance of local journalism.

Adrian commented:

“It is important that we are all supportive of our local newspapers as they are at the heart of community news. They report on the issues that matter and are vital for holding the Council and local officials to account. Local papers are more widely read and more trusted than national papers and with more and more people relying on the internet it is important that we continue to support them.”

Adrian Sanders reading a copy of the local Torbay newspaper, the Herald Express

Adrian Sanders, MP for Torbay supported Deaf Awareness Week recently by attending a training session to understand the impact of deafness and improve communication skills to Deaf people.

The sessions, which were delivered by training company HearFirst were organised to improve the understanding of the different types . . . → Read More: Adrian Sanders MP supports Deaf Awareness Week]]>

Adrian Sanders MP becoming 'deaf aware'

Adrian Sanders, MP for Torbay supported Deaf Awareness Week recently by attending a training session to understand the impact of deafness and improve communication skills to Deaf people.

The sessions, which were delivered by training company HearFirst were organised to improve the understanding of the different types of deafness by highlighting the methods of communication used by deaf, deafened, deafblind and hard of hearing people, such as sign language and lip reading.

Adrian Sanders MP commented:

“The session was really useful and provided me with the knowledge and skills to be more deaf aware.  I now feel I can put these skills to good use and make sure I am deaf aware during one-to-one meetings with constituents, making more formal meetings accessible and considering the needs of BSL users in written and web based materials.”

Now in its tenth year, Deaf Awareness Week is a week-long campaign held in May where hundreds of deaf charities and organisations from across the UK participate in a series of national and local events. HearFirst were joined by charity SignHealth at the event.

For more information on Deaf Awareness Week, please visit www.deafcouncil.org.uk

Torbay MP Adrian Sanders, the Liberal Democrat member of the Conservative and Labour dominated committee, agreed with the report’s conclusion that the UK would benefit . . . → Read More: Lib Dem Adrian Sanders Says No to 4 Runway Heathrow]]> All but one of the MPs on the powerful Commons Transport Select Committee have urged the Government to permit the expansion of Heathrow to a four runway hub airport.

Torbay MP Adrian Sanders, the Liberal Democrat member of the Conservative and Labour dominated committee, agreed with the report’s conclusion that the UK would benefit from a larger hub airport and the rejection of a new hub airport east of London, but not the expansion of Heathrow without first investigating an alternative site for a new airport between London and Birmingham on the proposed HS2 route.

Mr Sanders said:

“Heathrow is the nearest the UK has to a hub airport but it is clearly short of capacity and if the UK economy is to benefit from the expected growth in aviation new runways will be required.

“The Government should seek to identify a site for a purpose built modern airport with properly planned surface infrastructure to serve it.

“With billions being invested in HS2 and later HS3 a site somewhere along the HS2 route between London and Birmingham should be investigated that would meet the highest environmental standards, far fewer homes below flight paths, similar journey times between terminals and central London and much faster times to the Midlands and beyond.”

——————————————-

The Transport Select Committee press release was as below

From: HITCHINS, Adrian
Sent: 09 May 2013 14:59
To: ELLMAN, Louise; BAKER, Steve; DOBBIN, Jim; KWARTENG, Kwasi; STEWART, Iain; STRINGER, Graham; MCCARTNEY, Karl; LUMLEY, Karen; POWELL, Lucy; CHAMPION, Sarah; SANDERS, Adrian
Subject: EMBARGOED- Aviation strategy report

Strictly embargoed – not for use in whole or in part – until 00.01am Friday 10 May 2013

Transport Committee calls for expansion at Heathrow

MPs on the Transport Committee have today rejected calls for a new hub airport east of London and urge the Government to permit the expansion of Heathrow where a third runway is long overdue.

Launching the report of an inquiry that examined the UK Government’s Aviation Strategy, Louise Ellman, Chair of the House of Commons’ Transport Committee said,

“Aviation is vital to our economy and it is essential for the UK to maintain its status with an international aviation hub offering connectivity to a wide range of destinations across the globe.

“We recognise that demand for air travel across the UK is forecast to grow, believe that aviation should be permitted to expand and accept that more capacity is necessary to accommodate sustainable aviation growth.

“We looked closely at the three main options by which the UK could increase its hub airport capacity. Research we commissioned made plain that building an entirely new hub airport east of London could not be done without huge public investment in new ground transport infrastructure. Evidence to our inquiry also showed a substantial potential impact on wildlife habitat in the Thames estuary.

“The viability of an estuary hub airport would also require the closure of Heathrow – a course of action that would have unacceptable consequences for individuals, businesses in the vicinity of the existing airport and the local economy.

“Heathrow – the UK’s only hub airport – has been short of capacity for a decade and is currently operating at full capacity. We conclude that a third runway at Heathrow is necessary, but also suggest that a four-runway proposal may have merit, especially if expanding to locate two new runways westwards from the current site could curb the noise experienced by people affected under the flight path.

“We conclude that adding new runways to expand a number of other existing airports will not, on its own, provide a long-term solution to the hub capacity problem. We do however encourage Gatwick’s operator to develop a robust business case for their vision of a second runway.

“We reject the notion of linking existing airports by high-speed rail to form a split-hub; the outcome from this would be highly uncompetitive in terms of passenger transfer times compared to competitor hubs overseas.

In other core findings the Committee calls on the Airports Commission to:

• Address concerns highlighted during the inquiry that current DfT long term aviation forecasts may not take sufficient account of factors – such as HS2 – likely to impact the UK economy.

• Assess the impact of introducing an unrestricted open skies policy outside the south east, to help airports in the regions secure new direct services.

The Committee likewise calls on the Government to:

• Establish a national scheme to ensure adequate compensation for people affected by noise from expansion at Heathrow.

• Develop a coherent national strategy to improve road and rail access sufficient to address significant problems that exist with surface transport connections to major UK airports.

• Ensure that the High Speed 2 (HS2) rail network serves Heathrow and develop dedicated rail services to serve Gatwick and Stansted.

• Take a more active role in promoting airports in regions outside the south east.

• Investigate whether it would be possible (under EU rules) to protect slots at Heathrow for feeder services from poorly served regions.

• Conduct and publish a fully costed study of how far Air Passenger Duty impacts on the UK economy and, if this provides clear evidence that the duty causes harm to the economy or government revenue, moves to significantly reduce or abolish APD.

• Carry out an objective analysis of the impacts of introducing differential rates of Air Passenger Duty.

• Introduce an APD tax holiday for a 12-month trial period for new services operating out of airports outside the south east.

Notes for editors

The report was agreed by a majority of the Committee with six voting in favour, one (Adrian Sanders MP) voting against, no abstentions.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

Committee Membership is as follows:
Mrs Louise Ellman (Labour/Co-operative, Liverpool Riverside) (Chair); Steve Baker (Conservative, Wycombe); Sarah Champion (Labour, Rotherham); Jim Dobbin (Labour/Co-operative, Heywood and Middleton); Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative, Spelthorne); Karen Lumley (Conservative, Redditch); Karl McCartney (Conservative, Lincoln); Lucy Powell (Labour / Co-operative, Manchester Central); Adrian Sanders (Lib Dem, Torbay); Iain Stewart (Conservative, Milton Keynes South); Graham Stringer (Labour, Blackley and Broughton)

Adrian Sanders yesterday joined Brian Blessed, Annette Crosbie and a number of colleagues to hand in a petition to 10 Downing Street calling on the government to repeal Section 24 of the Animals (Scientific Research) Act Amendment Regulations 2012 . . . → Read More: Bay MP fights for transparency in animal research]]>

Adrian Sanders at 10 Downing Street with campaigners including Brian Blessed and Annette Crosbie

Adrian Sanders yesterday joined Brian Blessed, Annette Crosbie and a number of colleagues to hand in a petition to 10 Downing Street calling on the government to repeal Section 24 of the Animals (Scientific Research) Act Amendment Regulations 2012 (ASPA).

Section 24 places a blanket ban on the release of information about animal experiments and makes them exempt from Freedom of Information requests.

Section 24 is now redundant because the Freedom of Information Act provides all the necessary protections to ensure that personal or proprietary information relating to animal research is protected.

Adrian Sanders commented:

“We need to end the culture of secrecy that exists around the use of animals in scientific experiments. Section 24 is outdated and needs scrapping.

The public have a right to access information about the use of animals in research and it is wrong that they cannot use the Freedom of Information Act to do this.

The Government has previously shown a willingness to change ASPA and I hope that the petition will convince them that this is an important issue that needs attention.”