INITIAL COMMENT ON THANET'S PROVISIONAL FINANCIAL SETTLEMENT
From Cllr Clive Hart
Labour Leader of the Opposition
and Shadow Finance Spokesman - TDC.
"When the news from the ConDem government arrived on Monday of a £4.5 million cut in the provisional financial settlement for Thanet I felt bad enough. But then an even bleaker future for our district was exposed. Our relatively poor area here in Thanet is one of the hardest hit authorities in the country losing 8.9% for two years.
Eric Pickles the Communities Secretary insisted the ConDem government had applied the fairest possible formula by adopting an 'intelligent and fair' approach and that 'funding fairness' underpinned the settlement. He told parliament that the average cut this year would be 4.4%.
However, TDC will lose double that figure with the absolute maximum 8.9% cut and for two years, whilst Dorset gets a 0.25% increase in funding and Windsor and Maidenhead, West Sussex, Wokingham, Richmond upon Thames and Buckinghamshire all get cuts of just 1% or less.
The fact is that the poorest areas like Thanet are the most dependent on central government funding whereas wealthy areas that receive a lot in council tax are getting extra subsidies after the government promised more central funding to subsidise a freeze in council tax payments.
TDC now faces incredibly tough choices about the services it continues to provide and those it will have to cut and at county level I really do fear for the future of libraries, sports and childcare facilities.
With our Police service also seeing a 5.1% cut in funding next year and a 6.7% reduction in 2012-13, community safety in Thanet will undoubtedly be put under enormous pressure too.
There can have been nothing like this in the history of either TDC or KCC".
FROM BBC NATIONAL NEWS WEBSITE 13/12/2010:
Hardest hit: Losing 8.9% for two years
Source: Dept of Communities
Ashfield
Great Yarmouth
Barrow-in-Furness
Hastings
Bolsover
Hyndburn
Burnley
Pendle
Chesterfield
Preston
Copeland
Thanet
Published by Thanet Labour Group Press Office, 44 Northdown Road, Margate, CT9 2RW
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