TDC Labour administration and Independent Group reject Conservative call to use budget funds to help vulnerable groups in Thanet

At last Thursday’s meeting of the Council, Cllr Martin Wise, Shadow Member for Finance, proposed two amendments to the Labour budget.

The first proposed reinstating the Conservative budget, prior to Labour’s changes which reduced the safety net put aside for future contingencies in favour of spending funds on flowers and events and a reduction in fees and charges.

This was rejected by Labour and the Independent Group (though supported by newly independent Cllr Ian Driver).

Cllr Wise then proposed a second amendment as follows:

“This Council agrees that the £185k New Homes Bonus expenditure proposed in tonight’s budget would be better directed at providing services for vulnerable groups, unemployed young people or for community safety, rather than subsidising a reduction in fees and charges for motorists, and requests Cabinet explore where these opportunities can be best directed”.

This was also rejected by Labour and the Independent Group.

Cllr Wise commented: “We believe that the budget we presented in December was prudent and equitable and we consider the changes made by the Labour administration to be unwise in the current uncertain economic circumstances.  However, if the Council accepted additional spending, we felt that it should be directed towards helping vulnerable groups, the unemployed and community safety.  I am disappointed that the Labour and Independent Groups did not feel the same.”

The full text of Cllr Wise’s address to Council follows below.  I

Martin Wise’s address to Council in full:

To make the 2012/13 budget balance the Conservative Group at TDC worked with managers to find the £1.5m savings needed. This is a HUGE amount of money in the context of the total budget of the Council, and we achieved it without having to increase Council Tax.

As in any budget, it is necessary to make savings that are likely to be unpopular with some residents, and among these this year we proposed to reduce the events budget by £29k and   the floral grants budget, to save £20k.

Our rationale was, for events in Margate, we believe that now the Turner has arrived the Council is justified in reducing the events grant to the Town Partnership, who have indicated that they would hold dinners, etc. to close the gap in funding lost. We also believe that the Town Council in Ramsgate should receive a reduced grant as it is now able to raise its own funds, and should define its own priorities for events in the future.

For the floral grants, we believe that in this time of austerity local groups should be encouraged to do what they can to provide the funding where they believe flowers make a useful contribution to the community. Former Labour member Cllr.Driver has supported this reduction.

In summary, we believe that both of the above reductions are reasonable in the current economic circumstances, where those who can support themselves should be encouraged to do so.

In addition to the above we proposed increases to some fees and charges, including those for parking, which have not changed since 2007. Some of the increases were between 8 and 15%, but on the principle of the “polluter pays”, we believe that the individual increases would not be so significant as to cause real hardship to any car owner in the context of current motoring costs.

LABOUR CHANGES TO THE BUDGET

With regard to fees and charges, Labour have reduced the increase in parking and other charges creating a £137k hole in the budget. This is added to the £49k reversal of the events and floral grant proposals.

They propose to use the entire events budget to cover the gap, and to use the New Homes Bonus to fund events in 2012 and later years. However, the budget papers state that “…. it is expected that future allocations of Formula Grant may be top-sliced to fund the reward of the New homes Bonus and it is therefore possible that this funding may be needed in future years to offset this reduction. If there is insufficient New Homes Bonus funding to meet the cost of events and floral grants in future years, then these budgets will be removed”.

The Labour proposals therefore put in jeopardy the whole of events funding for future years.

The Conservative decision not to spend the New Homes Bonus as the Labour group have done, and to rather set it aside as a safety net which could be used to cover liabilites emanating from the EKO project, Dreamland or other potential losses, was on the advice of officers and was, in our opinion, sound.

It seems to me that the budget presented tonight does not take account of all the pitfalls which may yet cause difficulties for the finance of the Council, loses an opportunity to sensibly reduce spending in these difficult times, and offers only token gestures in way of parking and other fee reduction that will not benefit anybody to any significant degree. In fact those who have studied the proposals emanating from the parking review, cannot but agree that whatever the outcome of the review it is going to cause a great deal of anger in different quarters. And frankly, why should a benefit be given to car drivers and shopkeepers over others whose claim for a subsidy are far greater?

I therefore propose an amendment Mr.Chairman, which reads:

“This Council agrees that the budget proposed in the 12^th December papers to Cabinet meets the needs for prudence in the prevailing difficult economic circumstances and should replace the proposals contained in the budget presented to the meeting tonight”.

Second proposed amendment:

“This Council agrees that the £185k New Homes Bonus expenditure proposed in tonight’s budget would be better directed at providing services for vulnerable groups, unemployed young people or for community safety, rather than subsidising a reduction in fees and charges for motorists, and requests Cabinet explore where these opportunities can be best directed”.