First hour: news review: with LibDem councillor for Brislington Jos Clarke: We Care and Repair Jos Clark WE Care & Repair helps people over 60 and disabled people of all ages in B&NES, Bristol, Gloucestershire and North Somerset. Sisters of the Church in St Pauls Providing food packages and other support to those in need in and around St Pauls. Food is distributed in the Malcolm X Community Centre three times a week and food vouchers are not needed to receive help. Prime Ministers Questions: Schools are being financially penalised for supporting children with additional needs, David Drew MP tells Theresa May. Schools are being left out-of-pocket if they provide extra support for children with additional needs says Stroud MP David Drew. Heâs so concerned about the impact of the National Funding Formula on schools which aim to be inclusive that he raised the issue directly with the Prime Minister on Wednesday. Jos explains that children being assessed for special needs education are being ignored by Bristol City Councils Education department by not opening the emails so the time limit for processing the claims is not triggered! âDonât cut my futureâ, âHey Marvin, hands off SEND fundsâ and âI have a right to learnâ were just some of the messages angry parents had for Bristol City Council. The Bristol mums have taken the council to court over the authorityâs £5million cuts to funding for children with special education needs and disabilities (SEND). They said they did not want other parents to go through what they did, calling the cuts âunlawfulâ and that it would have a detrimental effect on all children. The court case is the first of its kind in England, with parents all over the country waiting to launch a similar case against their own council. Ahead of the judicial review hearing on Tuesday, July 24, several parents stood outside and chanted for change from the council. Sally Kent, who has a child with special needs, said: âIâve been through the process of getting an Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP), and we were refused an assessment. The Conservative group is warning Marvin Rees against bringing in a blanket âcongestion chargeâ for Bristol. Tory leader Mark Weston has publicly âput downâ his groupâs opposition to any future prospect of a congestion charge in the city. Bristol is in the process of creating a âclean air zoneâ plan which may involve charging private drivers of older or highly polluting cars to enter certain parts of the city. In contrast congestion zones involve charging all cars to enter set parts of the city regardless of their efficiency. Mayor of Bristols annual statement to Full Council and responses from political group leaders. Leaders of Bristolâs opposition parties are calling for clarity on the future of the cityâs arena. The Green Partyâs Eleanor Combley, the Conservativeâs Mark Weston and the Liberal Democratâs Anthony Negus have penned an open letter to Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees asking him to answer key questions about the timeline and decision making process for the project. It comes after the Labour Mayor postponed making a decision on whether the arena should be built in the city centre or Filton Airfield last month to consider new information. Mr Rees claimed Buckingham Group - the contractors for the city centre Temple Island project - and operators Arena Island Ltd had come forward with new offers for the project during a week-long session of scrutiny meetings in to a âvalue for moneyâ report on the two sites. Both companies claim the Mayor knew about the offers in December. Mr Rees has said a decision on the use of the land at Temple Island will be made before the middle of August, but has remained tight lipped about his current preference. This secrecy has irritated the opposition groups who believe the gravity of the decision warrants the need for âtransparentâ and âopenâ discussions. Changes to Bristol City Councilâs constitution have been branded a âshameless power grabâ that will âeffectively neuter local democracyâ. The Labour administration insists that the move will make the democratic process fairer and more transparent, as it effectively gives elected councillors from the ruling party more opportunity to make their voices heard on behalf of their constituents. Under the changes, Labour will increase the number of its backbench councillors taking chair roles in committees and decrease opportunities for opposition parties to put forward âgoldenâ motions for debate â which will reflect the proportionality of the chamber instead of working on rotation. All three opposition groups slammed the âconstitutional power grabâ as an affront to democracy at a full council meeting on Tuesday, with Tory John Goulandris, councillor for Stoke Bishop, likening the administration to a totalitarian regime. âBristol is not and never should be a one-party dictatorship,â he argued. Its the lying and the triviality I object to. Interview between John Cleese and Emily Maitlis where the Monty Python star explains why newspapers have driven him to the Caribbean. Kevin Cahill: A BBC Spotlight investigation into the man behind the DUPs record £435,000 donation during the EU referendum has uncovered a trail of illegal activity and foreign money. Richard Cook shipped illegal tyre waste to India in 2009. He presented fake documents to the authorities and left a shipping company with a bill of more than £1m. Prince Charles rued monstrous wrongs against bishop later convicted of abuse. Child abuse inquiry hears prince told Peter Ball in 1995: âI wish I could do moreâ. Prince Charles told the inquiry he had been deceived about Ballâs activities. Prince Charles told Peter Ball âmonstrous wrongsâ had been done to the disgraced bishop and that he wished he could do more to help, the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse has heard. The comments came in a letter sent by the Prince of Wales to Ball in February 1995, two years after the former bishop of Gloucester accepted a police caution for gross indecency and resigned his position in the church. The prince also told the inquiry in a six-page statement that he had been deceived over a long period of time âabout the true natureâ of Ballâs activities, but denied that he had sought to influence the outcome of police investigations. He said he was unsure whether he was told about Ballâs caution until 2009. In 2015, Ball was convicted of sexual offences against 18 young men and sentenced to 32 months in prison. An independent inquiry last year found that senior figures in the Church of England had engaged in collusion and cover-up over the case. Kevin Cahill has discovered the child sexual abuse files but theyre closed for 100 years. Whitehall child sex inquiry: the 114 files lostâ. Home Office admits that it destroyed, lost or could not find potentially relevant files between 1979 and 1999. Kevin found 127 childrens home child sexual abuse files just for the London area. Child sex abuse Wanless report: Files concerning Westminster paedophile ring believed destroyed in last few years. Labour campaign: The next Labour government will build things in Britain that for too long have been built abroad because we have failed to invest. Build it in Britain.
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