Conservative Budget

Speech by Cllr Janet Godden delivered to Council on Tue 9th Feb 2010

There has been an unusual reliance on Biblical quotations at this Council meeting and I would like to remind Councillor Mitchell - who is unfortunately leaving the Chamber - and who has been so free with his comments on others' intellectual abilities that it is the meek who will inherit the earth.

I have two observations to make about the Tory budget, and the first is the manner of the making of it, particularly with regard to the cuts to Children's services. At Children's Services Scrutiny on 8 December we were looking at a cut to the Youth Service of £1.3m, the abolition of the Chill Out fund and even more severe cuts to services for children with disability. Both at the budget briefing and at the Scrutiny meeting itself, members were shocked at these proposals, but we were not told that they were last ditch worst case scenarios, but that officers and cabinet members had nothing more palatable to offer. If these cuts were rejected the alternatives would be worse. We heard that two days running. Yet when these cuts came under the spotlight yet again during the debate on educational attainment in January, we were suddenly told that they had been no more than first thoughts when the budget was in a rudimentary stage. Either that was appalling budget planning that makes us wonder how reliable the figures we have today can be; or it was a cynical thing to do. Many disadvantaged young people rely heavily on the support of their youth workers and we all heard how worried and distressed they were and I haven't yet heard anyone accept responsibility for this. They produce figures in December and rubbish them in January - it might as well have been Bonfire Night. The administration may hold all the cards, but it is a pity to behave in such a second rate way. Another year, it would be better to be more accurate in the December budgets or else choose non people to play about with.

And then a word about Choice. This has been part of the Administration's mantra since 2005, with the word 'real' to invest it with additional rosiness. I believe the word was part of the Tory election campaign in 2005. Yet what choice is there, real or otherwise, for many people who depend on our services beyond that introduced by the government with direct payments? We barely have a choice of newspapers in our public libraries. Many of our villages are without bus services so people have no choice of transport. Many people have no choice of school to which to send their children. We have all seen Mrs England's email to Cllr Mitchell and we have all seen Cllr Mitchell's reply. We may agree that cuts to older people's services are unavoidable, though the Liberal Democrat budget had less than the Tory, but this group would not pretend that cuts are not cuts, and it would certainly would not pretend that these pared down services are offering people choice. We would ask Cllr Mitchell, if he were hear to listen to comments on his own budget, to say something Real about what that ridiculous phrase "real choice" means in connection with the budget in front of us.