Budget Cut Proposals should be scrapped

Proposals show Labour council are “out of ideas and utterly cynical”

Our West Lancashire have reacted angrily to the budget cut proposals tabled by Labour for next week’s council meeting saying they should be scrapped and new proposals brought forward for consultation that promote efficiency and preserve front line services.

Cllr Adrian Owens said “Given that the council underspent by more than £600,000 last year, many of these proposals should simply be consigned to the dustbin. To give just one example, to propose reduced CCTV monitoring just weeks after spending more money on installing extra cameras is madness. There are other equally damaging proposals and they should be scrapped and the process restarted.”

Jane Thompson who ran Labour close in Scott ward in May’s elections said, “Labour candidates gave the impression that they had scrapped plans to introduce a green bin charge when they stood for election. That’s because the proposal was badly thought out and unpopular. To re-table the bin charge proposal now is utterly cynical. It will mean ten or more jobs lost at the council; increased burning and fly tipping and green waste ending up in grey bins and then in landfill. Waste collection services should be paid for as a universal service through council tax. Let’s look at Councillors allowances first. They voted themselves to retain the highest allowances in Lancashire and sit pretty while now expecting the residents of West Lancashire to suffer. ”

Ian Davis, Our West Lancashire treasurer and a former Director of a major Engineering PLC said, “I was disappointed to see no suggestions to drive efficiency in the proposals. The council’s Building Control team is losing £100,000 a year. Why is the council not looking at creating a shared building control service with neighbouring councils?”

Cllr Owens concluded by saying that Our West Lancashire would campaign and strongly oppose the budget cut proposals. He said, “Cuts to front line services such as this must only ever occur as a ‘last resort’. With the council failing to spend £600,000 it had budgeted and taxed for last year and with few efficiency proposals, we are nowhere near the last resort.”