TWELVE MONTHS ON.........by Cllr Nancy Matthews

3.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Sun 10th May 2009

Launching a new recycling scheme in Buckley with Cllr Richard Jones

It is now 12 months since the election when you sent me back to County Hall to represent you again until 2012.

It has been an extremely busy year and there have been quite a few jobs to do in Gwernymynydd and Nercwys and some very exciting things happening with our Community Councils.

Gwernymynydd is holding a special day on the afternoon of May 10 when everyone is welcome to come and look at exhibitions in the village centre about Gwernymynydd old and new and talk about their ideas.

Gwernymynydd and Nercwys have been meeting each other to share ideas. We can't just keep reacting to planning applications, we need to be more pro-active in planning about what we need and want to see in our communities.

At County Hall the coalition have been learning to work together and those of us in the Cabinet have been swotting up on our portfolios.

As you know mine is Waste and Recycling - I have learnt loads and I have been to lots of meetings all over N Wales and the UK. I even went to an exhibition of Dustbin lorries in Birmingham!

This is one area where everyone can work together to produce the results we need to hit our targets (an important Lib Dem principle).

In April I went to meet Nick Clegg and Kirsty Williams, the young and dynamic leaders of our party.

I came away from that meeting feeling that there lots of ideas ready for us to put into practice and change everyone's cynical view of politics.

And I was delighted recently to hear Nick Clegg's announcement of the Lib Dems new ideas on taxation: No tax if you earn under £10k and it will be paid for by closing tax loopholes. Hoorah!