LIB DEMS TO DRIVE FORWARD EONOMIC RECOVERY

TOUGH times may lie ahead as Bristol City Council imposes inevitable spending cuts - but the Lib Dem administration is determined to drive forward an economic recovery that offers opportunity to all.
Barbara Janke, re-elected leader at today’s (Tues 18th) annual meeting of the council, thanked the people of Bristol for increasing the Lib Dems’ majority in the recent local elections.
“You have given us the opportunity to provide leadership, to bring investment and jobs and to help provide people with the skills they will need,” she told fellow councilors.
“Things are not going to be easy, but Bristol still has a very strong economy and we intend to continue that project.”
Barbara Janke said she hoped the Lib Dems would be able to move forward with projects at the heart of their programme - including a second tranche of devolution to neighbourhood partnerships - in spite of the recession.
She said difficult decisions would have to be made in a period of tough spending restraint.
But she also hoped everyone would be able to enjoy a chance to share in Bristol’s prosperity - “regardless of the challenges we now face”.
Barbara Janke outlined the duties allocated to the members of the administration’s new cabinet, which will be focused partly on the need for savings over the next few years but which will, nevertheless, have the Lib Dem group’s green agenda at the heart of everything it does.