Mixed bag of tricks in new budget (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

Mixed bag of tricks in new budget

4:04pm Wednesday 28th February 2007 in

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COUNCIL tax in Waltham Forest will go up by 3.09 per cent from April, an increase of nearly £44 per year on the average band D property.

But to keep the rise low, the £6.8m of cuts which have drawn criticism from residents since they were outlined in December's cabinet, have remained almost unchanged.

Introducing the proposed budget, the only one on the table at last Thursday's full council, council leader Clyde Loakes said that his administration was providing value for money for residents.

"We made a promise that we would deliver good services and that we would make efficiency savings wherever possible. This budget delivers all of this.

"This year we are investing nearly £2.5m in priority services. This money makes a real difference," he said, adding that the money would pay for a refurbished Leyton Library, £300 extra per year per school pupil and more recycling.

Cllr Loakes did not deny that the council had made some "tough decisions" and was proud of his administration's ability to save nearly £7.5m in 2006/7.

His deputy and Liberal Democrat leader Keith Rayner said the budget would put £1m into vulnerable people's services and that the proposals would ensure that people whom the council had legal and moral responsibility to look after were cared for.

But Tory councillors were vociferous in their criticism of the proposals.

Conservative Cllr Alan Siggers said money could be found by managing the borough's property properly, adding that £6m had been wasted on the Arcade site, while colleague Cllr Matt Davis said that £14m had been wasted on agency staff.

As the meeting went on, the debate got increasingly heated, with insults and heckles from both sides, and Mayor Farooq Qureshi intervened several times to regain order.

Cllr Loakes reacted angrily to criticism from across the floor.

"You just couldn't be bothered," he said of the non-existent alternative budget.

"We've worked hard and we've achieved three stars for this authority", adding that residents had said they were more satisfied with services.

The budget was passed with no amendments.

What you will pay, including GLA precept Band A: £938.03 Band B: £1,094.36 Band C: £1,250.70 Band D: £1,407.04 Band E: £1,719.72 Band F: £2,032.39 Band G: £2,345.07 Band H: £2,814.08 TORY councillors shocked the chamber by not producing their own budget and slamming cuts proposed by the cabinet in their budget speech instead.

Leader Cllr Geoff Walker said that every year the debate was focused on criticising the Conservative alternative budget "drawing fire away from the harmful and punitive cuts to services and the disgraceful imposition of massive increases in taxation".

Speaking of the policy to close council residential homes and cutting care from private providers, he criticised the "attack" on the "elderly and infirm, nicely trapped in to an existence of limited means, unsupported by decent increases and ever at the mercy of uncaring politicians, who, unlike them, can cushion the effects of inflation by topping up their own income".

"Where to has the spirit of social justice evaporated in this administration?" he asked. "Are Conservatives the only party remaining to champion the weak and the defenceless?"

Speaking of the condition he suffers from himself, Cllr Walker criticised the 50 per cent cut of funding to the Scope-run cerebral palsy day care centre in Chingford, saying it was a lifeline which gave people an opportunity to make the most of their "often tortured lives".

He slated the proposed rise in hire fees for Chingford and Walthamstow Assembly Halls, suggesting that the aim was to make hiring them so unaffordable to local groups that could then be closed on the grounds of under use by the community.

Cllr Walker said that cuts in sports provision would hurt Olympic hopefuls and the proposed "extortionate" increase in after school and holiday club fees would be beyond the means of many young families.

RULING councillors came under heavy fire for their treatment of the arts.

Referring to the proposed cut in opening hours at William Morris Gallery and Vestry House Museum, Conservative leader Cllr Geoff Walker said: "Both parties opposite seem hell bent on causing maximum disruption and disquiet within both our society, and now it seems, judging by post I received, repercussions right across the North Atlantic divide.

"What is it about you both that has such a disregard of our national heritage and indigenous culture that you feel able to dispense with adequate support for the arts, not to mention adult education?" he demanded.

His colleague Cllr Eric Williams claimed that along with the £56,000 coming out of budgets in 2007/8, the administration was planning a further £49,000 of reductions in the next financial year.

In a speech which drew cheers from the public gallery, he said together the savings represented half of the museums' budget and accused ruling councillors of undermining a £4m lottery bid for which the gallery is aiming.

He also accused council leader Clyde Loakes of saying that he did not care about the two venues.

Cllr Loakes responded, shouting across the gallery and jabbing his finger in the air.

He said: "I focus on the arts, I focus on festivals. There's more people going to our festivals in one day in Leytonstone that go to Vestry House in one year.

"All the nonsense you have read in the papers about the museums closing, it's just that - nonsense."