VIC DALBERT

Last night was “Budget Council” for Bury MBC. It is at this meeting that the Councils budget for the year to 31/3/09 was agreed by all councillors. As such it is probably the most important meeting of the council each year.
The headlines from last nights agreed budget are:

COUNCIL TAX UP 3.4%
This is the lowest increase for some time and the first time for a while that it is below the inflation rate of 4.1%.

OVER 65’S COUNCIL TAX DISCOUNT
In a repeat of last years “Age of Opportunities” initiative

12 INSTALLMENTS OPTION
Recognising the difficult times faced by many Council Tax payers will have the option of paying over 12 installments as opposed to the current 10 payments option.

MORE FUNDS FOR DISABLED SERVICES (LIB DEM PROPOSAL)
To pay for pressures on services for disabled people

MORE FUNDS FOR STREET CLEANING (LIB DEM PROPOSAL)

MORE FUNDS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT CONCERNS (LIB DEM PROPOSAL)
Including Parks maintenance and environmental enforcement.

COMMITMENT TO BUILD RADCLIFFE RIVERSIDE SCHOOL

COMMITMENT TO REFURBISH AND DEVELOP PHILIPS PARK
With support from the National Lottery

THE BACKGROUND
Once again it was a very difficult year (again) for Bury thanks to yet another poor grant settlement from Bury Council. The amount of money that the Government gives us was yet again less than our neighbours in the rest of Greater Manchester. Its been calculated that since Labour came into Government Bury is 15% worse off than before - and that was from a low starting point. This means that a number of “savings” (cuts) have had to be made - totalling around £5 million.

LIBERAL DEMOCRAT BUDGET PROPOSALS
The Liberal Democrats proposed an amendment to the Budget which proposed to reallocate just over £1/3 million of different expenditure than what was being proposed by the Conservative Party administration that runs Bury.

£250,000 TO MAINTAIN KEY SERVICES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND CHILDREN
This included saving proposed cuts to the youth service and schools advice services. We believe that services for young people are essential, not just for their own sake, but also because they help tackle issues like anti-social behaviour.
Our proposal also saved proposed cuts to services to vulnerable children including: disabled children, the whole young carers service, the whole service to support parents with mental health needs, and vulnerable children at risk.

£100,000 OF NEW EXPENDITURE FOR PARKS PARKS, CLEANER STREETS AND THE ENVIRONMENT
£50,000 on environmental issues to help deal with issues such as Street Cleaning and maintaining the “Green Flag” status of our parks. We’ve been promised a Saturday clean of town centre areas which believe will help tackle the filthy state of our town centre.
£50,000 on environmental enforcement which will tackle issues such as fly-tipping, dog fouling and stray dogs (dog warden service).

The Liberal Democrat Group amendment was accepted with Conservative support (but without the support of Labour) and became part of the agreed budget.

LABOUR EXPOSED
Last night we finally saw how desperate Labour have become. After 10 months out of power and with an increasingly unpopular Government ,they are now so desperate that they are prepared to put the vulnerable at risk in order to offer the Bury people a gimmick bribe at the next local elections.
Labour proposed to:
- ignore the needs of disabled people in Bury by removing £700,000 of much needed expenditure for people with learning and physical disabilities. This is a disgrace. They should be ashamed of suggesting that disabled people don’t need services from the Council.
- ignore the needs of children and young people by cutting £350,000 of services for young people and vulnerable children. If you wanted to know what the difference is between Labour and the Lib Dems this is where that difference was most evident. Whilst the Lib Dem proposals were saving these services Labour were axing them. Labour proposed to cut youth services, cut ALL services to young carers, cut services for disabled children and, most worryingly, cut services for vulnerable children at risk. This is how desperate Labour have become and it was shameful and a disgraceful proposal.
- put the future finances of the council at risk by spending all the “reserves” down to the bare minimum (reserves are needed to cope for emergencies such as spending on flooding, unexpected demand etc). Fundamentally Labour were happy to ignore the long standing “equal pay” issue to address women employees who have been paid less than men doing the same job. So much for equality under Labour. Another principle ditched.
In this final act of a desperate Bury Labour party, desperate to hang on to their remaining seats. These savage damaging cuts were proposed in an era of 4% inflation in order to bribe Bury’s electorate with a 0% Council Tax increase. New Labour has finally ditched all its founding principles and any remnants of social concience. An ultra-conservative budget from a desperate Labour Party.

AND THE CONSERVATIVES ?
In the end it was the proposals of the Conservative Party, with the addition of the new expenditure proposed by the Liberal Democrats that won the day as outlined above.
We didn’t feel able to support all the proposals of the Conservatives - particularly some of the savings around the environment and social services, so abstained on the final vote.
The papers for the Budget are available on the Council’s website.

If you have any questions, or comments, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.