2010 sees the resurrection of the Kent and Medway Funding Fair, with two fairs in 2010. They provide an opportunity for Kent and Medway voluntary and community groups to meet and talk to a range of local and national agencies that can offer funding, grants and advice.
This is a period of great change in the European Union, but also one of great uncertainty. With the final accession of the Lisbon Treaty on 1st December much has changed to the structure and workings of the Union, but if we work carefully the threatened turmoil will be avoided. I remember Paddy Ashdown saying after the 2004 accessions (when 10 countries joined the EU) that what was needed was a period of deepening the Union rather than widening, and it seems as if the last decade has been consumed by institutional wrangling, but that time is now over. We must now walk together into a new era of European cooperation, one where the principle focus is on working to improve the life of our citizens.
This is a period of great change in the European Union, but also one of great uncertainty. With the final accession of the Lisbon Treaty on 1st December much has changed to the structure and workings of the Union, but if we work carefully the threatened turmoil will be avoided. I remember Paddy Ashdown saying after the 2004 accessions (when 10 countries joined the EU) that what was needed was a period of deepening the Union rather than widening, and it seems as if the last decade has been consumed by institutional wrangling, but that time is now over. We must now walk together into a new era of European cooperation, one where the principle focus is on working to improve the life of our citizens.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is to debate and vote today on a report on equal rights for Europe's LGBT community. The report includes recommendations for the legal recognition of same-sex relationships and the adoption of children in homosexual relationships. Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has called for full equality of marriage marriage as part of DELGA's Marriage Without Borders campaign.
Cllr Karen Chilvers has made a formal complaint to the council following inappropriate comments made by a Conservative councillor last week.
As councillors for a town centre ward with several GBC owned car parks, the Liberal Democrat councillors for Friary & St Nicolas were exasperated to learn that plans for evening charges for town centre car parks were to be revived. The proposal is to charge £1 in all the car parks except Farnham Road, where there is already an overnight charge. The plans are part of an annual report on parking going to the Executive on Thursday 28 January.