From Council Tax To Council Stash

From Council Tax To Council Stash

Liberal Democrat opposition "astonished" at council underspend.

£7 million of unused funding has been revealed by the City Council in budget papers released today. The money is to pay expected interest payments on loans the council could have taken out to boost local communities.

Councillor Nick Cott the Liberal Democrat Leader said, "I am astonished at this revelation. This is much needed money the council could have been investing in communities all over the city. Instead the money has been allowed to build up over several years of the Labour run council. It could have previously been released to help restore our local shopping areas, and make our communities safer. The general public might perceive this as going from their council tax to the council's stash."

The council document outlines potential cuts to major services including axing approximately £6.5m from social service budgets. Cllr Cott again, "I understand there is a plan to spend a bit more on preventative measures which could lead to people not needing to use social care services. This is something I absolutely welcome, but I think the targets are potentially very hard to attain and based on assumptions about service demand which is very hard to predict. Similar proposed cuts in recent years have proven impossible to implement and are being formally scrapped this year.

"The administration claim to be putting a stronger focus on income generation but most of the proposals are basically restating existing funding, and expected inflationary rises. "

There are a range of other proposals to save money such as not filling some vacant posts, and redeploying around 12 posts within the authority. Additionally the council's administration is wanting to standardise the hours at household recycling centres, but the Liberal Democrats concerns are that "standardising" simply means shorter hours, and therefore a poorer service.

Cllr Cott said, "We welcome proposals to try and increase domestic recycling as we note that recycling levels have fallen in the last few years and are lower now than when the Liberal Democrats left office in 2011."

The Bikeability scheme to encourage children to cycle to school will also be scrapped. Liberal Democrat Councillor and finance spokesperson Phil Hall said, "This seems counterintuitive as the council has strict targets to meet on climate change. My own ward of Gosforth continues to suffer from traffic jams and gridlock due to one road being closed for emergency gas works. We need to encourage more people to switch to alternative modes of transport. If we can get kids to cycle to school that gives them a great start. "

Councillor Cott added,
"The political priorities in the general budget amount to a meagre sum of around £300,000 which is only about 1% of revenue spend. Additionally the capital budget shows little that is new and no ambition beyond next year. The Labour leadership recently set out a flimsy set of objectives and we now have a flimsy budget to go with it. It shows that the political oversight within this authority is superficial and weak.

"The council should have greater ambitions to make our city a safe, vibrant, green and a working city that is a great place to live."

"We are yet to be convinced that the council truly has a plan to tackle major priorities, such as the cost of living and growing child poverty"