Budget: “What a difference a year makes”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Cllr Glyn Griffiths, Labour’s Deputy Leader and Financial Spokesperson, attacked the Tories’ budget yesterday, highlighting the lack of detail, the breakdown in trust, and above all the phenomenal amounts of waste at a time when cuts are being made to vital services such as social care and older people’s homes.
After a decade of funding increases from the Labour Government, the Tories somehow find it harder and harder to balance the budget.  And despite this year’s 6% increase, more cuts to services have been agreed by the Tories in the 2008-9 budget, meaning further misery for residents.
Cllr Griffiths said,
“Medway has received an increase of nearly 6% for non-schools activities, which equates to a £4.5 million increase for the Council, and is more than the average for ALL English Authorities, Shire Counties, London Boroughs, Metropolitan Districts, Shire Unitaries, and Shire Districts.  A further £4.7 million has been given to schools.  Every year, under this Labour Government, we have been given millions of pounds extra, and still the Tories can’t manage the budget.”
“The budget setting process is becoming more of a joke each year, both for councillors and for residents.  We’re meant to judge the strength of the budget using only an eight-line table, with no indication of service plans, and the only reason the details of the service cuts have been belatedly issued is because I intervened.  And if we don’t know what’s going on, it’s even worse for residents.  The first thing they know about the impact of the budget is when they find their home help has been made redundant or their Youth Centre has closed.”
“Residents are now realising that they can’t trust the Tories.  All of the broken promises on the flyover, the black bin bags, Shaws Wood- in each instance the Tories promised to protect services, and in each case they’ve cut them, co-incidentally just after the elections.”
“Combined with the waste of millions of pounds on the Tour de France, the Council’s call centre, the housing contract, which could have been invested in services, it’s clear that residents are getting a very poor deal from this Authority.”

Notes to Editors:
· For a gross expenditure of £ ½ billion per year – Members get Table 5 on page 16. 
8.14 The following table summarises the proposed budget requirement for 2008/2009 at directorate level and analysed between gross and net expenditure.
Table 5 Summary Budget Requirement 2008/2009

· 

   Budget for Tour de France was £86 000; spend was £487 000
· Closure of the flyover before elections, and then re-opening afterwards cost £100 000
· Call Centre (Customer First) cost £6 million in capital to set up; £2.5 million pa. to run.