Conservative Budget (Oxfordshire Liberal Democrats)

Conservative Budget

February 14, 2006 2:50 PM
By Cllr Zoe Patrick, Deputy Leader of the Opposition (Lib Dem) in County Council

We have heard a lot of speeches today about the rights and wrongs of all the budgets on the table. You have heard already how our budget is fairly addressing those areas that we feel have been neglected. But unfortunately, how ever many good words are said about opposing budgets - we all know today that there is only one budget which is going to be voted through on behalf of the people of Oxfordshire. The Tory budget is going to be voted through by a selected number of councillors intent on keeping the council tax low at all costs. The amazing thing is that if we look at the council tax consultation at the end of the supplement papers we can see that 58% of people wished us to spend more on care for older people and 50% of those consulted wished to see more spent on support/care for vulnerable groups such as people with disabilities and/or mental health problems. And yet in this Tory budget these are the areas which are being cut most.

We have heard from one of our residents this morning Mr. Avis, about how the Conservative budget is going to have serious effects on carers and how this vulnerable section of the community are going to be losing out. We know that the Tories are making cuts to our children's services, we know that social inclusion and children with special needs are all going to suffer - and who will speak up for them - we have tried to already as Cllr Fooks and Turner have said.

We also know that one of the largest vulnerable groups who are going to suffer are older people. And in fact, I do not believe the reality of the implications of these cuts are fully understood. Cllr. Godden has tried to make the case for why the social and health care budget needs to be scrutinised for the impact of the cuts hidden under the heading 're-prioritisation', but where is the re-prioritisation? Do we all fully understand the implications of the 'pooled budget' with health? Is it not the case, as many of us feared at the outset, that the problem with a 'pooled budget' of course, is that if one half of the commitment is not fully shared, then who will pick up the other half. We know that the health sector has been seriously underfunded and that money is still to be found as all the health trusts are grappling with their own financial crisis. And can we guarantee that this will not seriously effect our situation?

Have all the 'pressures' been fully understood. What about contingency in an emergency? Everyone knows this is an extremely volatile market. For example, what about the implications of a really severe winter - we have seen what this has done in the past and surely our experience should show us that we need to ensure we do have a fallback situation in the future. Or has this been conveniently forgotten?

There is even an acknowledgement in the papers on Annexe 2 p.3 - under older people that 'there is a need to contain expenditure pressures of £1.049m which may be difficult to achieve without reducing service'. There are constant referrals to 'monitoring carefully' - doesn't this just simply mean trying to manage 'cuts'? If this budget gets voted through, then we shall see those older and vulnerable people in our community having to suffer serious consequences, and many of them will not be able to speak for themselves. Are we going to see tightening of eligibility criteria for care? Maybe this will be the next card on the table?

We need to ensure that we send a strong voice to those in power in this Council, that we do not support this budget, it is not providing a fair budget and it will mean more 'efficiency savings' to come in the future. I ask you to vote against this budget today and send a clear message to those who have tried to pull the wool over our eyes - we can see what they are doing and we will reap the consequences if this goes ahead.

Oxfordshire Liberal Democrats