The Cotswold Liberal Democrats have slammed the decision by Gloucestershire County Council's Conservative administration to withdraw £500,000 funding for the roll out of super fast broadband in the Cotswolds.

The Liberal Democrat group at Cotswold District Council (CDC) have come out against proposals to merge Cotswold District Council with West Oxfordshire Council after a group meeting last week.

The Liberal Democrats secured a number of wins at Cotswold District Council's (CDC) budget meeting earlier including periods of free parking in Cirencester, funding for more parking spaces in the town and half a million pounds worth of investment to roll our super fast broadband.

Gloucestershire County Council's Conservative bosses have had to reverse a proposal to slash money for road repairs.

Cotswold District Council gave unanimous backing to a Lib Dem motion calling on the South Western Ambulance Service Trust to dramatically improve ambulance response times in the Cotswolds.

A Lib Dem motion submitted to full council next week will look once again at worrying ambulance response times across many parts of Gloucestershire.

A legal challenge has been today submitted by the Liberal Democrats under the council’s constitution over Cabinet’s approval of a £17 million contribution towards the Javelin Park incinerator.

At last week’s Environment & Community Scrutiny Committee unanimous cross-party support was given to the setting up of a task group (subject to Scrutiny Management approval) to investigate safety and congestion on the A429.

Cllr. Paul Hodgkinson (LD: Bourton-on-the Water and Northleach) requested a ‘call for action’ back in the Summer and now the Council’s Environment Scrutiny Committee will look at road safety issues along the A429.

Cllr. Hodgkinson said that “The Cotswolds continues to have the worst accident record in Gloucestershire, every life lost on our roads can be avoided and we should act to prevent further injury and loss of life on this stretch of road. I’m therefore delighted that the Environment & Community Scrutiny Committee has today supported for my calls to set up a working group.

“Once formed, this group can work together to come up with recommendations that deal with safety and also to work out how to ease the increasing gridlock which Stow, Moreton and Bourton all face regularly.

“As I’ve said before this road wasn’t built for a massive increase in traffic – the whole thing needs looking at and hopefully through this task group solutions can be found.”

3,100 families in the Cotswolds will lose out under Conservative plans to cut tax credits.