Westminster’s £70m cuts consultation is a sham, say Labour

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Westminster’s £70m cuts consultation is a sham, say Labour

By Westminster Labour ⋅ November 11, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment
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Conservative promise to “do more with less money” – but services will be cut and charges will increase.

A ‘consultation’ exercise on £70 million service cuts proposed by Westminster Conservatives has been branded as a sham by Labour Councillors who say that the Council is deliberately deceiving residents by claiming that it will “deliver better services with less money”, while implementing a massive 25% cut in the Council’s budget over the next four years.

Labour say that the Council’s 22 page ‘consultation’ document, ‘A living city in tough times’, launched at 8.00am last Friday, is riddled with false promises, contradictions, misrepresentations and Council ’spin’.

The document makes 5 false promises;

Council Promise 1 – “We need to keep our streets safe and clean” (page 3) and “We will prioritise areas such as street cleansing” (page 7) – the reality is the proposal to “reduce the scope of some recycling, street cleansing and graffiti removal services” and “we want to encourage greater responsibility for street cleansing and will consider ways of getting people to take more care with the area in front of their home or business” (page 9)

Council Promise 2 – “We need to protect the most vulnerable and support family life” (page 3) – the reality are proposals “raising eligibility thresholds and increase charges”, “reduce further day care and home care services”, “reduce subsidy to some services including play, youth services and some other services for children” and to “reduce our work with young offenders” (page 8)

Council Promise 3 – “We need to support economic growth” (page 3) – the reality is “reduce our staffing levels in planning services and reduce economic development activity” (page 9) and “we will not be able to maintain the existing level of direct support for economic activity” (page 17)

Council Promise 4 – “We will deliver better services with less money” (page 3) – the reality is higher charges for residents as “we will raise income where we can” (page 3), “we will selectively increase charges where necessary” (page 7) and “increase charges….registrars, archives, residential parking” (page 10)

Council Promise 5 – “Creating the best city environment in which to live, work and visit” (page 15) – the reality of the Conservative plans is “reduction in parks staff”, “reducing some sports provision and rationalising library services” (page 8), “reduce planning enforcement work”, “reduce the maintenance timetable for bridges, lighting, highways” (page 9) and “significant reductions…to the budget of the City Planning Delivery Unit” (page 15)

Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Leader of the Labour Group, said: “As ever, Westminster Conservatives promises one thing and does the opposite. But this a first even for them, as their misrepresentations and contradictions are contained in the same document and sometimes even on the same page. This so-called ‘consultation’ is a complete sham. The Conservatives have already made their minds up at the secret ‘High Level Group’ meeting in the summer where the real decisions were taken behind closed doors. Many of the cuts were set out in the papers and notes of the High Level Group meeting held on 23rd August which were leaked to Labour Councillors last week.

“Five other secret High Level Group meetings were held in August and September and we have demanded that the papers and minutes of these secret meetings are released as a matter of urgency so that we can see what else the Conservatives plan to cut but have conveniently not told us about.

“This is not about consultation but about ’spin’. The Conservatives are not prepared to discuss their cuts in public. Not a word about these cuts was raised at the Council meeting on 3rd November where all 60 Councillors and the press were present, yet two days later, at 8am in the morning, the Conservatives launch a bogus ‘consultation’ exercise on the biggest cuts ever seen. This cuts for the sake of cuts. After Labour bailed out the banks and saved peoples’ homes and jobs the Conservatives are now cutting too fast and too deep and will destroy public services that have taken years to build up and will take years to replace.

“Labour Councillors want to see sensible savings by cutting out the Conservative extravagance at City Hall. We have already called for the ‘Westminster Reporter to be scrapped (saving £150,000 a year), a 10% cut in top salaries (saving £178,000 a year), an end to private health care for senior officers (saving £232,000 a year) and scrapping Council Opinion Surveys (saving £210,000 a year). In addition the Council spends over £10 million a year on temporary agency staff, incurring huge agency fees.”

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