Liberal Democrats put forward Alternative Council Budget
Tuesday, 20 February 2018
Calderdale Council’s Liberal Democrat Group will present its alternative to the Labour Cabinet’s budget proposals at the Budget Council meeting next Monday (26 February).
Liberal Democrat Group Leader, Councillor James Baker (Warley), told us: “We are keen to explore innovative ways of running and delivering local services. Picture a Council and Calderdale that is more like Silicon Valley than what was portrayed in Happy Valley.”
“By generating more income sources and delivering services more efficiently we can reduce the cuts to front line services. Our budget will contain fewer cuts than Labour’s as it contains innovative ways to generate income for the Council. “
“These proposals have been produced against the backdrop of continuing cuts to the amount of funding councils receive from central government.
“Austerity has gone on for too long and has gone too far, but we have to do the best we can within the resources available.”
“Although finance is tight, there are still areas where we believe the Council needs to spend more, so we are suggesting:
- Additional funding, as we promised, for the winter gritting service;
- Additional funding for highway maintenance;
- More money for play equipment in the Council’s parks;
- Supporting projects for young people;
- A CCTV camera in West Vale to monitor traffic and tackle anti-social behaviour;
- Undertaking two additional traffic calming schemes, and
- More money for the Safer, Cleaner, Greener service.
“We are proposing the same Council Tax rise as the Labour Cabinet has put forward, but one point of difference is that we want to reduce the number of councillors receiving Special Responsibility Allowances.”
“I said last year that the Council Tax rise was too high and the cuts to services too great, and that remains the case. The blame for this lies entirely at the feet of the Conservative government”, said Cllr Baker.