SHADOW UPDATE - 11/02/2010

SHADOW UPDATE

(11/02/2010)

Labour Shadow Team comments & questions for Thursday evenings TDC Cabinet meeting.

INTRODUCTION - Labour Group Leader - Cllr. Clive Hart.
As per an agreement made this morning between myself and the TDC Chief Executive concerning his and the leaders wishes to keep proceedings to a minimum this evening and to prevent unnecessary journeys in appalling weather, the comments below, sent in advance from Shadow Cabinet members, were to be presented to the TDC Cabinet at this evenings meeting.
Nevertheless, I cannot stress enough just how significant tonight's Cabinet meeting agenda is in exposing the desperate situation that the current Conservative administration has created.
At agenda item 4 below, Cllr David Green explains the Conservative financial mismanagement that has occurred despite enormous help from the Government.
Worse still, the Conservative's inability to face up to emerging problems over the last six years has meant that last minute panic has now hit TDC with proposals to move the management of a whole raft of services away from TDC. Any argument that people in Thanet will receive poorer services, jobs will be lost from our area or that democratic control will be diminished are met with derision by a blinkered administration that is simply clutching at straws with their hasty and poorly thought through proposals.
The current Conservative administration is gambling with our council tax, our jobs and our District Council.
Cllr. Clive Hart - Phone: 01843 298770

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AGENDA ITEM 4 - 2010-11 BUDGET & MEDIUM TERM FINANCIAL PLAN 2010-15.
Cllr David Green - Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance & Corporate Services.
Thanet Labour Councilors would like to congratulate the officers concerned on a clear and skillful report, free of the anti government rhetoric that has been present in past years.

This year, is the third year of a three year settlement on Formula Grant. This years 1.1% increase, first announced in Jan 08 was confirmed in Nov 09. It is with some relief that we welcome the Government sticking to this increase in funding under current economic conditions and against Conservative party pressure to cut funding immediately.

The Formula Grant is by no means the only Government help for Thanet, and this year sees an increase Community Cohesion funding from £132k to £205k, Working Neighbourhood funding from £1,482k to £1614k and two new grants for Climate change work of £23k and Economic Assessment of £6K. None of these are ring fenced, giving the Council welcome freedom to use them as it wishes, something that this Council and others have argued for.

Tables 4 and 5 in the report list various other Government Grants amounting to £963.2 in revenue and £7.620k in capital. Admittedly, these are essential ring fenced, but as the report says “they still represent excellent value for the Council as they enable additional resources to be made available to fund activities, projects and investments. They include, £200k from a grant from English Heritage for Margate Arts Culture Heritage, £90k from SEEDA for Margate Renewal Partnership, and increased grant from the Regional Housing Board for decent homes in the private sector from £795k to £1212k, the first £1,000k of a £5.500k grant for Margate Coast protection and £4,000k Heritage Lottery funding for Dreamland.

Strangely, not mentioned in the report are the capital investment in Margate from SEEDA represented by the empty Marks and Spencer site, the massive investment of both capital and revenue from the Arts Council in Turner Contemporary and the capital investment through the sea change programme.

The Sea Change programme has benefited 32 seaside resorts including Margate where it has provided the bulk of the match funding required for the Heritage Lottery grant, and there has been £38 million in extra funding-money that would not be available if there were ever a Conservative Government.

Regional development agencies are helping coastal towns including Margate, to fulfill their economic potential-again, RDAs that would be abolished under a Conservative Government.

This list still does not exhaust the major sources of funding receive by Thanet Council from the Labour Government. Over £4,000k has been received by TDC from the Local Authority Business Growth Incentive (LABGI). We have criticised the way this money has been used in past years. This has not invested in spend to save scheme schemes or vital one off projects to improve the future economic viability. Instead £1,890K of the total has been used to shore up the base budget and another £969k on Corporate Improvement projects unrelated to improving economic viability.

Two years ago and again last year, the Labour Group warned that the current administration needed to regain control over employee costs. That it has demonstrably failed to do this means that despite the monies flowing into the Council from Government described in detail above, and despite the above inflation Council Tax rises and increases in charges for services that we have seen, we appear to be in constant budget crises.

With a net base budget of £23,109k, the current salary bill is £18,000k plus £1.4000 employers national insurance contribution, £2,000k for current pension contribution and £2,000k for .. There is every reason to believe that the current provision for pensions is inadequate and we question whether the proposed contribution to an earmarked reserve is adequate.

Each year we have been promised a number of savings in order to balance the budget. Each year we express skepticism, and each year we are proved correct. This year, only £261k of the already inadequate £741k of savings promised last year are now consider achievable. This year we are promised another £400k of savings through a new contract with staff, cutting overtime, agency staff and consultants, and cutting staff perks, all measures that we have advocated over many years and have been ignored.

Last year, we warned that the Councils reserves were becoming dangerously low. It is generally accepted that a prudent level of reserves for the Council is around 10% of the net service revenue budget, £2.311m, This year the opening balance in the general reserve is predicted to be £1.883m, or 8.16%. Last year we were promised action to restore the level of reserves. This has not occurred. In fact it is proposed to take £1.8m from various earmarked reserves reducing them from £4.841m to £3.095m. As well as the obvious risks in this a unforeseen disaster situations, reserves also provide the essential buffer to aid cash flow. There have already been signs of cash flow problems, with officer being told not to spend agreed budgets, and spending on various grant schemes being held over from year to year.

In conclusion, TDC’s budget is far from healthy due to mismanagement over a number of years. The situation is gradually becoming more critical, and this at a time when we are told funding will tighten.

The elections next year and a new administration cannot come soon enough.

Cllr. David Green - Phone 01843 591495

Cllr Iris Johnston - Shadow Cabinet Member for Community Services (Housing).
Following a meeting with senior officers and members of the Thanet Disability Forum I would ask Cabinet to ring fence all monies designated for disability facility grants in the coming budget. A great deal of distress has been caused by the removal of the £2000 last September from last year’s £4000 allocation.
Residents who believed they would have had essential work carried out ‘within 6 months’ were later told at least 18 months. This has caused a great deal of distress.
I would also ask for a review of the charges and competence of the work on some properties and for pressure to be put on all Housing Associations to fund their own adaptations.
Cllr. Iris Johnston - Phone: 01843 299207
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AGENDA ITEM 5 - SHARED SUPPORT SERVICES FOR THANET, CANTERBURY, DOVER & SHEPWAY COUNCILS.
Cllr Clive Hart - Leader of the Opposition.
Firstly I would like to give sincere praise to Donna Reed, the Director of Customer Services, whom I know to be an excellent officer for this council. Please understand, none of my comments are aimed at her personally, indeed, I believe Donna has been presented with a virtually impossible task by the current administration.
The following matters will be the subject of further debate at full council so I will be very brief at this point:
We in the Labour Group have serious concerns about the proposed joint services initiatives. Much of the process has been, and still is being, extremely rushed and this has led to further concerns regarding the models of governance and management systems being proposed. Through the information provided to date, we are not at all convinced of any financial savings and we have grave concerns about the serious loss of democratic control over these services for the future.
I attended the last scrutiny meeting where these issues were discussed and I was absolutely shocked by the lack of detail available whenever anyone asked a really pertinent question - always 'something more to come' or 'detail will follow later'. I can only describe what was outlined at Scrutiny as 'the contents of several bowls of spaghetti thrown high in the air, with the desperate hope of catching all of it in one larger bowl on its way down'. Just give that a try sometime and see what happens.
It appears that the current administration is totally incapable of managing these services effectively and simply cannot wait to offload the responsibility. As always, ratepayers will pay for any mistaken decisions made in such a desperate panic!
Cllr. Clive Hart - Phone: 01843 298770
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AGENDA ITEM 6 - LANDLORD SERVICES - JOINT WORKING PROPOSALS.
Cllr Iris Johnston - Shadow Cabinet Member for Community Services (Housing).
I would ask Cabinet to support in full the recommendations from Scrutiny from 4th February to arrange a vote of all Council tenants before we take the case to the Secretary of State. It has always been my view that we cannot prove that our tenants wish to join an East Kent shared housing landlord scheme unless we put this to a ballot for a clear ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
Dane Valley tenant’s representative Mrs Maureen Thoroughgood made it very clear in her statement to Scrutiny that she should not give her own reading of the tenants views and a ballot was essential. We should honour her and Scrutiny’s wishes.
I should also point out that Councillor Bayford’s synopsis of our working party’s discussion was not quite accurate.
I also feel it was important to have invited Unison to Scrutiny on 4th February and I understand when I questioned why they were not in attendance that they had not been formally invited. I would like to have heard their views.
Cllr. Iris Johnston - Phone: 01843 299207
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AGENDA ITEM 8 - BUDGET MONITORING REPORT.

Cllr Peter Campbell - Shadow Cabinet Member for Regeneration & Economic Development.

Page 164 Risks Para 8.1

Would the cabinet member responsible for the Port & Harbour, Cllr John Kirby, please explain why on the 26th January at Overview & Scrutiny committee he failed to mention, in his presentation to the committee, the meeting of the 19th January which determined the detailed level of required capital & revenue spend at the Port & Harbour. Indeed when pressed by myself for some paper record of the spend required he stated that, no detailed costs have yet been apportioned & no paper trail yet exists. Was he at the meeting of the 19th January if so was the detailed spend determined by memory only or did he mislead the overview & scrutiny committee. If he was not at the meeting why not as this is within his area of responsibility.
Would he also inform us of “the various assumptions” that have been made to source the £2.5Million funding gap that now exists.

Cllr Campbell's questions require response, but he is prepared to ask the same question again when full council considers this matter.

Cllr. Peter Campbell - Phone: 01843 585738


Published by Thanet Labour Group Press Office - 44 Northdown Road, Margate, CT9 2RW.