LIb Dem Response to Conservative Manifesto Pledges

Speech by Cllr Jean Fooks delivered to Cabinet on Tue 21st Jul 2009

This is an interesting essay, but I feel it misses some aspects of life in Oxfordshire that are very important to the residents. It glosses over the very real challenge of climate change. Cllr Margaret Eaton as Chairman of the LGA, and a leading Conservative councillor, says in the recent LGA leaflet , titled 'the economy or the environment, do I need to choose?', that 'Reducing emissions and planning to adapt must be the most important long-term priority for councils.'

There is very little about reducing emissions in this report. Paragraph 23 does say that 'we will continue to work to reduce energy consumption', but I cannot find the words 'climate change' anywhere. The pledge on making it easier to get around Oxfordshire makes no mention of the planned Low Emission Zone in Oxford - nor the need for similar zones in Henley, Witney, Abingdon and Chipping Norton. And how moving bus stops further from the city centre makes it easier for elderly and less mobile people to get around escapes me.

That same section talks about roads but not rail; no mention of cycling either though I thought the Council had recognised the need to increase cycling in the county where possible? No mention of reducing traffic - which really would reduce emissions and make it easier for people to get around with the consequent reduced congestion.

As for 'planning to adapt' - this simply does not feature. Does the Leader not accept that this will be needed?

There is mention of helping people to articulate and implement the changes they want to see happen. Paragraph 22, and paragraph 47 says the County Council should support cooperative relationships with district, town and parish councils. My group welcomes these aspirations and looks forward to the County's working with Area Committees and Forums across the county. Working with Oxford City as you promise in paragraph 48 (vi) means working with the councillors who represent the city, even though they are not Conservatives!

We do worry, however, about the pledge to freeze Council tax; indeed if the sentence in paragraph 5 is to be believed, a Conservative government would reduce Council Tax to zero! Can we assume that this is a tacit admission that the Conservative-invented Council tax must go - to be replaced by the much fairer Local Income Tax as promoted by the Liberal Democrats?

Whatever the local tax, it looks unwise in the extreme to base pledges on the assumption that a government of whatever colour will provide enough grant to sustain local services and enable the extra spending implied in your report. Some very large spending cuts are proposed for the next few years - and the depth of these cuts is greater because you have undertaken to reduce the Council Tax without knowing what support there might or might not be from central government.

I am interested in your promises of new school buildings. Building Schools for the Future money, if it comes at all, will not be available before 2013. Is it therefore wise to be spending money now on preparations for something that may not even happen?

You do say you welcome comments - I have given you some on behalf of my group.