Leader of Labour Group blasts 'old-fashioned Thatcherite Conservatives'
It is astonishing that local Tories claim to have delivered their reduction in council tax off the back of efficiency savings. They have, in fact, introduced multi-million pound cuts in services, taken over £1 million out of the Council’s savings and failed to invest in Labour’s plan to give the five wards with the highest crime 24/7 police squads. If you consider that £600,000 equals 1% off Council tax in H&F, then it is easy to work out how the Tories have made the cut – equivalent to £27 off a Band D bill.
Since the May elections, the Tories have announced the closure of Hurlingham and Chelsea secondary school, have slashed the home help and meals-on wheels services, cut street cleaning to the tune of £500,000 and introduced a range of new charges, such as increasing burial cost for local people by almost 50%. The Tory Council has cancelled 500 affordable homes, virtually closed down the low-cost house-building programme and is cutting funding to the voluntary sector and the arts. We know that the Tory Administration are considering closing up to two more primary schools and are looking at selling off Council housing on the open market.
Just before Christmas, the Government generously awarded £3.6 million more to Hammersmith & Fulham than anyone expected in its financial settlement. That is enough for a 6% cut to local council tax. Labour wants to know why the Tory council has not made this cut and why it has failed to make the investment in fighting crime. Indeed, their priorities seem very odd with the Council spending £1 million to introduce blue signs, blue carpets, blue paint, new propaganda and a new blue council logo.
Following the Council elections last May, the Labour Opposition made a public promise to the new Tory Administration. We told them that we understood that the next Council elections will not be until 2010 and if in the meantime they could deliver better services and lower Council tax then we would vote with them. Despite our commitment to work with them, this Tory Administration has unleashed one of the most hard-nosed cuts programmes in the UK.
Labour believes that there is room for reductions in Council tax but that this should come from making the Council more effective. The Council should cut waste and not take the bureaucrats' easy option of cutting services.
These are proving dark days for many people in our borough with children, the elderly, the low waged, the homeless and the vulnerable all targeted for cuts - people least likely to kick up a fuss. To be fair to the Administration; they are Tories and that is what they do. So why try to make out that they are not cutting services when it is plain for all to see they are? Maybe, after so many years in the political wilderness they are still too nervous to admit that Hammersmith & Fulham Tories are a group of very old-fashioned Thatcherite Conservatives.
Cllr. Stephen Cowan
Leader of the Labour Group
January 26, 2007