After a week of council coalition discussions and meetings, I wanted to give you as members a quick update on our thinking and where we are given the considerable interest and questions members have shown over the last few days.

The Lib Dems are calling for the Focused Mass Testing of care homes, schools, students, high risk workplaces and their families to bring people together safely over Christmas. With fears growing around South Yorkshire’s restrictions over the festive period, being one of the hardest hit areas by the COVID-19 outbreak, these leaders are mounting their frustrations with their local Councils for their “lack of initiative and proactivity” on testing. 

Lib Dem councillor Shaffaq Mohammed said, “This is absolutely scandalous!

“Sheffield’s taxpayer money should not have been spent in Scarborough while Sheffield’s sporting heritage was told not to re-open.

Sheffield City Council were given £113m by the Government to give out to local businesses during the Coronavirus pandemic. After failing to give the money out in time, the Council are set to give £16m of that money back to Government.

Liberal Democrat questions to the Labour council has uncovered that despite £16m remaining, over 1,600 of Sheffield’s businesses were refused any grant money by the council!

The Government has announced that rental e-scooters will be legal from Saturday with a maximum speed of 15.5 MPH. Local Councils will be able to trial and run 12 month trial schemes.  Fifty local Authorities have expressed an interest in being part of the trials with Middlesborough being the first from the 4th July.  E-scooters. have the potential to be real alternative to short car journeys which can clog up many of the City’s streets.

Liberal Democrat Councillors are asking Sheffield City Council to get serious in the way it supports rough sleepers throughout the COVID-19 crisis. This follows the government roll-back of emergency accommodation support and an arson attack on a key homelessness charity.

Liberal Democrats have welcomed the lifting the restrictions on key workers at Sheffield’s Hospitals at Car Parks owned by the City Council.

Liberal Democrats have called for the lifting the restrictions on key workers at Sheffield’s Hospitals.

Liberal Democrat MEPs have today written to the EU Commissioner for Trade, Cecilia Malmstrom, asking her to urgently seek assurances from the Government of Brazil that it will act to honour its environmental commitments to the Amazon Rainforest, as a condition of the ratification of the recently agreed EU - Mercosur trade agreement. The European Parliament will vote on the provisional trade agreement in the coming months. 

A new ‘code of conduct’ for Lord Mayors was proposed to Sheffield Full Council meeting on Tuesday 5^th December.

In a chaotic Council Chamber, Labour ended abstaining on their own motion and the Liberal Democrats defeated it.

While this hasn't been released by the Council yet, we have heard from a reliable source that the 20 of the healthy trees on Western Road will be saved!

Sheffield has some of the most underfunded schools in the country. But in this year’s budget, the Government gave more money to fixing pot holes than our schools. School should be a place where young people are given the experiences and tools to get on in life. That’s what parents expect. That’s what teachers want to deliver. That’s what the Budget failed to deliver.

Labour are set to force through a 90% cut in money expected to be used by local communities to improve their areas.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for an urgent cash injection for Sheffield’s schools.

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Campaigner for Sheffield Hallam, Laura Gordon has met with several headteachers from within the Hallam constituency to listen to their concerns.

Liberal Democrats are claiming victory as Sheffield’s health bosses are set to agree plans which would keep the Minor Injuries Unit and Walk In Centre open until April 2020 and the urgent eye care services indefinitely.

Controversial plans have been approved which puts fracking near Sheffield a step closer.

Sheffield’s Labour Council have been accused of wasting taxpayers’ money. The claim comes as information released by the Council reveals that the Labour run Council are set to spend nearly £500,000 of taxpayers’ money on trade union reps – including an overspend of £136,000.

Our NHS survey showed that over 97% of you want to save the Walk In Centre and Minor Injuries Unit. Sheffield's NHS bosses have closed the consultation and are now looking at your suggestions.

Sheffield Liberal Democrats have today voiced their opposition to Sheffield City Council’s plans to cut recycling collection to a monthly collection.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for an expansion of the materials which can be recycled to make recycling easier for people. Only by making it easier, will our recycling rate increase substantially. In Sheffield, only plastic bottles can be recycling in the blue box or bin. Items such as yoghurt pots, carrier bags, margarine tubs, food trays and bottle tops can’t be put in Sheffield’s blue boxes or bins but can elsewhere.

The Liberal Democrats have today claimed victory as the Conservative government bowed to pressure to take decisive action on empty houses, by giving new tax powers for councils.

Sheffield Liberal Democrats are calling for football clubs to be allowed to introduce safe standing areas in their grounds. Safe standing already operates in domestic leagues across Europe, including Germany, Austria and Sweden and is backed by 92% of football fans and 70% of football clubs in the UK.

Newly elected Lib Dem councillor for Crookes & Crosspool, Cllr Mohammed Mahroof, has secured a site visit from the council in his battle to reassess the decision to not re-recruit a school crossing warden at the crossing outside Lydgate Primary School.

After a week of high emotion involving the trial of four Sheffield citizens at the High Court, brought about by its own Labour run City Council, it's time to act to bring our City together.

Sheffield has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. People are no longer talking about the great things and the great people that make up Sheffield, they're talking about the street tree fiasco. It needs to be fixed and we have a plan to do that.

The Liberal Democrats are celebrating successful gains in this year’s local elections in Sheffield – increasing their seats by 3 since the last City Council elections in 2016 and strengthening their positions as the main opposition to Labour in Sheffield.

The budget proposed to Sheffield City Council by the Lib Dems trusts you to make decisions for our city. A Liberal Democrat Council would give communities the power and money to make the decisions that are best for them. In short, we would build a City with trust, transparency and truth at its core. It's time for a Council that works for you.

The Liberal Democrats have launched a campaign to reinstate the Snow Warden scheme they started in 2010.

Campaigners for road safety measures are celebrating a partial victory with the announcement of a proposed 20mph speed limit to control vehicle speeds on The Dale and bottom of Scarsdale Road near Woodseats Primary and Nursery School.