The Lib Dem Budget - Sustainable Development (Oxfordshire Liberal Democrats)

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The Lib Dem Budget - Sustainable Development

February 12, 2008 12:00 AM
By Cllr Anne Purse in County Council

Cllr Anne Purse Our sustainable development budget is well thought out and forward looking. As well as meeting present and future demands of core services there is much for waste management.

We are continuing the commitment we have shown to the Thames Towpath by putting in money for repairs within and outside the City - a total of £1.5m - nearly four times the Tory proposals.

We are investing seriously in flood alleviation/climate change measures. Instead of a one-off sum to help businesses adapt to climate change we are providing more on-going money which will be available to the public in Oxfordshire as well as businesses.

We have on-going resources for processing rights of way - something that has been taking a back seat for too long.

The basis of environmentally friendly travel is making roads, pavements and cyclepaths safe for cyclists and pedestrians - that means kept in good repair. Yes, that helps motorists too. The £1.5m we have in for maintaining the highways would make a real difference. And so would the community safety measures for which we allocate £200,000 for pedestrian crossings and so on, to provide extra support to communities wishing to encourage environmental travel but without the infrastructure to make this safe.

I can recall harsh words being spoken in the past from the group opposite [the Conservative] when others produced budgets with "savings to be identified" in them. Yet that is precisely what their budget has for the environment - "savings to be identified" in future years. Liberal Democrats know how crippling these sorts of demands are for departments and we are putting money in to remove Sustainable Development from the need to scrape their department over and above the savings they have already offered. This money will allow the many smaller exemplary schemes within the sustainable development budget to continue.

I commend our budget to the Council.