Today, the County Council set its budget for the next five years. There will be cuts in spending to try to find over £100 million of savings. There is a danger that some services will be severely affected as 500 posts will be axed. There are certainly difficult times ahead, as I predicted last summer.
In my role as Leader of the Liberal Democrat Opposition, it was my job to propose an alternative budget, which is what we did today. As expected, with a Tory majority, our budget did not get through, but we still needed to give members of the public an idea of what we would have done. We proposed a lower council tax this year with just a 2.5% increase and then retaining that level of increase for the following four years. This would enable our balances to provide for vital Oxfordshire services.
The Tory council tax increase is higher at 2.75% this year and eventually rising to 3.75% in later years. They have a hole in their budget in the medium term because they assume there will be a nil council tax increase in 2011/12 and 2012/13 because a Tory government would be able to somehow find money to increase our grant allocation. Well, considering David Cameron seems to be changing his mind every week about his public spending plans, we did not see this as a viable and sustainable option.
In my role as Leader of the Liberal Democrat Opposition, it was my job to propose an alternative budget, which is what we did today. As expected, with a Tory majority, our budget did not get through, but we still needed to give members of the public an idea of what we would have done. We proposed a lower council tax this year with just a 2.5% increase and then retaining that level of increase for the following four years. This would enable our balances to provide for vital Oxfordshire services.
The Tory council tax increase is higher at 2.75% this year and eventually rising to 3.75% in later years. They have a hole in their budget in the medium term because they assume there will be a nil council tax increase in 2011/12 and 2012/13 because a Tory government would be able to somehow find money to increase our grant allocation. Well, considering David Cameron seems to be changing his mind every week about his public spending plans, we did not see this as a viable and sustainable option.
It was a really grumpy council meeting, with disparaging remarks being made. How strange, when I thought all councillors were supposed to be trying to agree the best for the county of Oxfordshire. What a very sad state of affairs!
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