Tory Budget Failures - letter to Oxford Mail
August 6, 2006 12:00 AM
In his letter to the Oxford Mail published on August 1st, county council cabinet member Jim Couchman repeats the Tory lie that the Lib Dem group on the county council "could not be bothered to propose an alternative budget".
The Lib Dem group produced a document detailing and explaining some 22 substantive changes to the Tories' budget. We tried particularly to ease pressure on the Children's Services budget, and added back a million pounds for Older people which the Tories had cut.
The substance of our proposals was well understood by the council officers and by most members of council (except, apparently, Cllr Couchman), and had been approved by the Financial Director as amounting to an "achievable" alternative budget.
At the July cabinet meeting, the Tory administration which rubbished the Lib Dems for their budget proposals, were faced with a report from their own officers making it clear - just a quarter of the way into the financial year - that their budget will be overspent by over a million pounds in two areas: Services for Children and for Older People.
So, faced with the unfortunate fact that the Lib Dems were more right than they were when the county's budget for the current year was set, the Tories resort to rewriting history and trying to shoot the messenger.
It's far too much to hope that the Conservative administration will apologise for getting their budget wrong, but please could they swallow just a little piece of their pride and listen to other parties when budgets for next year are debated?
Alan Armitage
County Councillor for West Central Oxford
Lib Dem Finance Spokesman
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