Responding to the Chancellor's announcement on police funding in his Spring Statement, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Ed Davey said:

"Faced with the current epidemic of knife crime claiming the lives of so many young people, the Government's response today is shockingly inadequate.

"The Conservatives have cut £1 billion from police budgets since 2015, and now they offer just £80 million back. They have taken 5,000 police officers and 2,600 community support officers off the streets, and now they offer to fund some extra overtime.

"This is an insult to our hard-working police and an insult to the victims of knife crime and their families.

"The Liberal Democrats demand better. The Government must give local police forces the funding they need to recruit more officers and restore the community policing that prevents crime and keeps us safe.

"The Government must also invest in a proper public health approach that brings together youth services, community groups, schools and the NHS to tackle the shocking rise in knife crime."

The Draft Local Plan was submitted to the Council's Executive Board on the 4th March.

Liberal Democrat Councillor Ryan Bate says, "From our initial look at the headline figures, we are both pleased and relieved that the amount of development proposed has been reduced significantly and that less Green Belt will be lost. We're also pleased that brownfield sites will be used as efficiently as possible and that there is a commitment to build infrastructure first.

The opposition Liberal Democrat Group has given its support to the 2.98% rise in Council Tax for next year. The budget was agreed at a Warrington Council meeting on Monday evening.

Finance Spokesperson Cllr Ian Marks said, "The utter shambles of Brexit is having a profound effect on our economy and our Council budget. Civil servants are being diverted from their normal business to prepare for the possibility of a no-deal Brexit. What a waste, when they should be concentrating on the NHS, education, housing and other vital services. Austerity has gone on far too long and according to the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies, the present system of local government finance is not sustainable. Yet as the Public Accounts Committee says, the government is in denial over local authority funding.