Calderdale services and jobs to move to Leeds?

Monday, 20 December 2010

From a press release by the Calderdale Labour Group

Labour calls for open debate on Conservative plans for West Yorkshire super-bureaucracy.

Calderdale Labour leader Cllr Tim Swift is calling on his Conservative opposite number, Cllr Stephen Baines, to publish full details of Conservative plans to create a single organisation to provide ‘corporate functions’ for all Councils in West Yorkshire.

Cllr Swift said: “We have made it clear that we are not ruling out any plan that can genuinely save Calderdale money without affecting front line services.

“The Conservatives are claiming that this could save fifty million pounds across West Yorkshire. Of course, we have to ask why they did not bring these proposals forward before May, when they controlled three of the five West Yorkshire councils, but I assume there is detailed work behind this and that this is not just a figure that has been dreamt up for the sake of a press release.

“We need to see the detailed plans so they can be properly debated. My concern would be that the creation of a West Yorkshire super-bureaucracy would not only fail to deliver the promised savings, but we also mean important jobs and vital local control being lost from Calderdale as services and decisions were concentrated in Wakefield or Leeds.