TDC BUDGET COMMENTSPEECH TO COUNCIL - THURSDAY 24th FEBRUARY 2011. Cllr Clive Hart - Leader of the Opposition TDC & Labour Member for Finance. In

SPEECH TO COUNCIL - THURSDAY 24th FEBRUARY 2011.

Cllr Clive Hart - Leader of the Opposition TDC & Labour Member for Finance.

In the TDC budget report council financial officers complained that the Comprehensive Spending Review in October 2010 highlighted cuts of £83billion but provided insufficient detail to determine the impact of these cuts at Thanet District level. The coalition government was once again acting over zealously and long before they had actually thought things through. It was January 31st this year before Eric Pickles outlined that detail, and the final result was and still is a shocking 5.3% cut in this years settlement and an 'atomic bomb' 16.9% cut next year.

And none of these cuts in government funding allow for inflation that is being allowed to run out of control by the Tory-led coalition government.

With 'smoke and mirrors' Mr Pickles will then provide taxpayers own money to keep Thanet rate payers bills artificially at 0%, thereby getting local Tories past our forthcoming local elections, but at the same time creating an inevitable funding gap for some dark point in the future.

Despite spurious claims that the settlement 'tries to insulate the poorest and most vulnerable in society' Thanet's usual area based grants to tackle community cohesion, citizenship, social inclusion, safer and stronger communities, climate change, and working neighbourhoods funding to help those on welfare back into work, are all ended completely. We will also have a total of £100,000 cut from neighbourhood crime prevention and victim support projects. Thanet residents safety and security is being put at risk by these cuts and neither the Tory administration at TDC or the Tory-led coalition government appear to have any conceivable understanding of the huge social problems we face here in Thanet.

Many relatively hidden fees and charges for local residents will increase by around 4%, museum entrance fees will go up between 5% and 12% and crematoria fees will rise by an inflation busting 13%. Short sighted bulky goods collection increases of up to 25% will undoubtedly lead to more fly tipping and dumping that will affect all our lives and could further impact financially on street cleaning and enforcement service costs. But guess what? Car parking fees, the fees that almost all residents notice, will remain unchanged for this election year!

The Conservative administration is desperately clinging to their Shared Services experiments with Canterbury and Dover council's to 'save the day' but with just one of a prospective stream of services within the scheme at present, TDC is already £30,000 short of the Tories promised savings, and indeed, the TDC financial risk assessment states Shared Services are probably the largest risk facing the council to date.

Even the TDC General Reserves are beginning to run down below the recommended level under the current administration and a desperate and probably unrealistic hope in this budget is to reinstate them if at all possible - well, we'll see!

Four Conservative Councils in East Kent have spent a considerable amount of tax payers money over the last three years working towards amalgamating all of our publicly owned Council housing under a one 'Arms Length Management Organisation'. The promise was that this particular 'shared service ' will save money and be better for tenants is not borne out even by TDC's own estimates. Despite less than 31% of tenants showing support for the amalgamation the Conservative's want to finally push this through. It is clear that the first year of operation will be given over to 'organisational' matters and tenants may not see any real improvement in service. Based on TDC's own figures any actual savings may not be realized until year six. TDC staff will also expect to be on the same salary scale as the highest paying authority, how will that keep costs down?

Labour members have serious concerns regarding the poor funding made available for Disabled Facilities Grants in the budget.

The Conservative leadership has consistently complained that Labour ward councillors have been wrong to support local residents in protecting green spaces and much-loved community assets even though the budget papers clearly point to these matters as being district priorities. The capital budget proves our (Labour) stance to be absolutely correct. Indeed, officers have subsequently been forced to be creative and funding has eventually been found for a new Ramsgate swimming pool through other means than asset disposal.

Residents should not however, be complacent. The Tory budget states quite clearly 'many of the proposed disposals are being held back until more realistic sale prices can be guaranteed.

Unfortunately I fear this budget is simply a tool to get the currently shell shocked Conservative administration through the May elections, after which many in-year alterations will have to be made as the hopes and wishes for savings and efficiencies are slowly dashed. That situation will be bad enough, but then the 'atom bomb' cuts of 2012/13 will hit TDC with a force so far unseen across our island and anything like normal local authority service will become very difficult indeed!

Cllr Clive Hart - Leader of the Opposition TDC & Labour Member for Finance.