Crime, Collectivism and Cooperatives.

It has been a good week at Liverpool Guild of Students. We're little over a week from the beginning of Welcome Week which means that we are planning a whole range of things in anticipation of the students coming back. It is all a bit too quiet over at Guild towers, and I can't wait to see everyone again. Not that it hasn't been nice to see our Postgraduate and some of our medical students filtering back this week.

The first thing that we've been working on this week is bike crime. It might not sound very important, or indeed very glamorous, but bike crime is the number one crime on our campus. From September up until Christmas there is a spike in bike crime across the University. Giving that we are a students' union committed to sustainability we don't want anybody to have any excuse not to travel in an environmentally friendly way. There is no bigger excuse than not cycling due to having lost your bike through theft. To reduce bike theft we have ordered 50 bike locks that we will be handing out in the weeks following Welcome Week to students who have particularly poor bike locks. Alongside this the security on campus will be installing new signs to deter thieves as well as remaining ever vigilant. It has cost us a bit of money to hand out the bike locks for free, but it will be money well spent if we can reduce bike theft significantly across campus.

Secondly, this week we have finalised plans for Liverpool Guild's very first food cooperative. The Guild is in a difficult place in selling retail, it is surrounded by retail outlets on every side. Where we differ from retailers is that our motivations are not drive by shareholders, they are driven by our student membership. We know that the cost of living is ever increasing, and that vegetables may often be one of the first food stuffs to be dropped from the shopping list when times are hard. Shortly after Welcome Week we will launch our food cooperative wherein we are looking at selling four vegetables all year round, with a rotating stock of three seasonal vegetables. As the cooperative expands we will be looking to sell vegetables that we grow in our roof garden, as well as developing the provision to order vegetables in advance. Green, cheap for students and supporting local business.

Finally, in what is the campaign I am most proud to have taken part in, in my time as an Officer the government has made a u-turn over their decision to cut Disabled Students' Allowance! Disabled Students' Allowance is funding that provides disabled students with specialist equipment and non-specialist support. After receiving testimonies from students throughout this campaign it quickly became apparent that this funding was the difference between attending, and not attending, University for some of our students. Students' unions lobbied the government to reverse this cut, and today it was announced that this cut has been postponed for at least a year. A remarkable win for students, and a testament to the power of students' unions when they work together.

This week has been a particularly good one. Next week is the final week before all of our students get back; I can't wait.