The Tories will set Medway Council’s budget in the next few weeks, and the Administration have followed the predictable path they do every year.
As usual, the Tories claimed that Medway is receiving a poor deal.  However, this argument was blown out of the water when Medway’s increase came in at over 4%- one of the highest for all unitary authorities, and well above the rate of inflation.
The next argument is to claim that ‘all the money goes north’.  This is undermined again by two important points.  Firstly, that the Tories then use Brighton and Hove as a comparison, and complain about the amount of money that Council receives.  The second is that although Government funding is higher in areas of the greatest deprivation, and there are more deprived areas in the North, that ignores the fact that Bristol, Cornwall and Plymouth councils all receive between £100 and £200 million.  It is also worth noting that none of these Councils are Labour-held.
When this argument has failed, they complain about ‘floor-damping’, a national mechanism whereby the amount of funding Councils receive is smoothed to prevent a major impact on services – this is then evened out across the country.  However, the Tory finance portfolio holder has publicly admitted he has done nothing to argue Medway’s case for more money.   He has not bothered to speak to the national body which could influence the Government’s decision, the Tory-controlled Local Government Association.  However, it may be that he can’t admit that he has no influence with his Conservative friends- in either case it is embarrassing for him.
The Tories’ last annual, complaint, is that the other political Groups have not helped review the budget in Scrutiny, despite the fact that every year he refuses to release any of the financial details to the committees.
This sham is acted out by the local Tories every year.  What’s truly frightening is that if the Conservatives were elected nationally, they are committed to cuts that would see £5 million wiped from Medway’s budget - equivalent to the Council’s entire libraries and leisure services disappearing overnight.