Opposition brand 2010/11 budget "a shoddy deal... done with no principles"
Hounslow residents will welcome the news that their council tax will be frozen for the fourth year running. The decision was made at Tuesday's (2nd March) Full Council Meeting at which Councillors set the budget for 2010/11.
Leader of the council, Cllr Peter Thompson, said, “This budget means we are one of very few authorities in the country that have been able to freeze council tax for so long. We have fallen from having the fifth highest level of council tax in London, to fifteenth, thanks to sound leadership and strong financial controls."
Cllr Phil Andrews added, “We want to put local people at the heart of what we’re doing, so extra investment in community groups and the voluntary sector is welcome. I hope local people see that this budget shows we are committed to working hard to keep providing the excellent services they want, without penalising them with unnecessary tax rises.”
But the budget wasn't welcomed by all parties at what was described as a 'stormy' meeting with Labour councillors condemning the deal that saw the Conservative/ICG budget passed at a stormy council meeting on Tuesday.
Cllr Matt Harmer said, "The budget proposed by the Conservatives was originally voted down. After a 20 minute break, it emerged that £250,000 was to be made available for unspecified 'community uses'. The ICG leadership then supported the budget."
Labour leader Jagdish Sharma lead the condemnation saying, "This was a shoddy deal done by two parties with no principles whatsoever. They couldn't tell us where the money would come from or what it was going to be spent on. It's a shocking waste of council tax payers money".
Earlier in the meeting Labour councillors successfully voted against Liberal Democrat proposals to increase council tax. "This isn't the time to burden residents with more tax - the Liberal Democrats are showing just how out of touch they are with the concerns of ordinary people" said Cllr Ruth Cadbury.
The Lib Dem proposal for the long-term restoration of Gunnersbury Park and its Mansions was also rejected as was their call for investment to restore the Cranford Agreement through a parliamentary bill. The agreement was reached in the 1950s to protect residents in Cranford from excessive noise. The Lib Dems say that by scrapping the Cranford Agreement the Labour Government betrayed undertakings to protect the public from negative effects of Heathrow development. Given the rejection of these proposals – and a range of other ideas – the Lib Dem group voted against the Council budget.
On Gunnersbury the Lib Dems say that their analysis showed that the park, local history museum and mansions could be restored without imposing an excessive burden on Council tax payers. The Lib Dem proposal was for £8.2m to be raised through prudential borrowing and repaid over 25 years. They say that now Hounslow and Ealing Councils will be drawn to the proposal to raise the money by selling some of the park to developers or leave the local history collection to decay.
Lib Dem Cllr Andrew Dakers, said, “We are deeply disappointed that the Council was not prepared to take the action required to stop the decline of the park, local history museum and mansions. This is a site of local and national importance. We carefully costed our proposals and used the work of the consultants employed by the Council to chart a way forward. Now it seems that the indecision that has blighted the park and its mansions for years is set to continue."
He continued “Voters should take into account the fact that MPs Ann and Alan Keen dropped their opposition to airport expansion on the basis of a promise to keep runway alternation. Apart from the dismal record of BAA with respect to such promises it means that they found scrapping the Cranford Agreement acceptable."
Cllr Barbara Reid, the lead member for Heathrow, said that rejecting the Lib Dem budget proposal did not mean that their proposal was ruled out. She seemed to imply that if the Bill seemed likely to produce a result it could perhaps be financed from money already allocated to efforts to oppose Heathrow expansion.
March 5, 2010