In depth: council cuts meeting (From Bucks Free Press)

In depth: council cuts meeting

5:31pm Thursday 5th August 2010 in Marlow By Oliver Evans

Cllr David Shakespeare

IT takes a big problem to get all (well, mostly all) members of Buckinghamshire County Council in one place during August, when most are jetting off to even sunnier climates and the meeting diary dries up.

Yet this was no ordinary problem. The county and Britain is slowly emerging from one of the most turbulent economic periods in its modern history and now councils, rightly or wrongly, are having to tighten their belts.

Ruling Conservatives at Buckinghamshire County Council voted through cuts for looked after children, residential care for OAPs, alcohol treatment and domestic violence programmes after two hours and 45 minutes of fierce back and forth.

Rising to his feet at Green Park Conference Centre in Aston Clinton today, leader Cllr David Shakespeare explained why he wanted to assortment of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats before him to back £9.2m worth of budget cuts.

A further three million could be met, he said, but the remainder would be tough.

“At the moment, if we do nothing, we will be on course to spend £12m of council tax payers’ money that we haven’t got.”

Spending this would put an extra six per cent on the council tax – about £1,000 goes to BCC from most homes – he warned. But this would not happen – the Government has demanded a freeze next year and new laws would give voters a referendum on a rise, the leader said.

Turkeys being asked to vote for Christmas springs to mind. Cllr Shakespeare said: “So, in my mind, I have dismissed that as not going to work.”

A ‘change in culture’ around child protection meant that ‘quite rightly’ social workers were more likely to take in youngsters in light of the Baby P scandal, he said.

Another key pressure was £1m for social services for non-Bucks people who leave the National Centre for Epilepsy. Laws meant the centre is paid for by the person’s council, he said, but their care afterwards falls to BCC.

Cllr Shakespeare said: “It seems totally unfair that the council taxpayer of Buckinghamshire will have to pick up this new emerging pressure.” The council is ‘trying to explore the legal situation’ he said.

He said of the proposed cuts: “Under normal circumstances, we would have to spend the next three to four months consulting with users and the public and then come to a decision.

“But in three to four months time the problem will have got much worse and we will have lost three to four months to deal with the situation.” Pressure on budgets would be ‘deeper and greater’ he as a result, he said.

The cuts include:

Cllr Shakespeare said: “I cannot say to you hand on heart that none of these reductions will affect public services. They will, absolutely, without a doubt.”

A series of public meetings about where BCC casj should be spent may see funds put back into these services, he said. But he warned a further £10m to £15m would need to come out of the £303m revenue budget this year with more to come.

An always combative Cllr Mary Baldwin, the Liberal Democrat group leader, did not disappoint.

She said: “We are not debating the need for cuts but we believe the process was flawed, we should be waiting to October.” This is when the Government publishes its Comprehensive Spending Review, which will set the tone for public spending in the years to come.

She said the process for setting this year’s budget, earlier this year, was ‘transparent and robust’. This included a watchdog committee questioning bosses in meetings open to the public, a process that lasted several weeks.

Yet Cllr Baldwin said: “You are making a mockery of any consultation you will have for next year’s budget.

“You are saying ‘we want to know what you think but we will ignore it three months down the line’.”

She said: “I have failed to find any other council that are doing it this way.”

But Cllr Shakespeare hit back: “In a perfect world I wouldn’t disagree with Mrs Baldwin’s amendment but it ain’t gonna work because it isn’t a perfect world.”

Lib Dem Cllr Michael Brand said there had been ‘specific failures’ such as the collapse of a bid to merge the county’s four district councils and BCC, saving £6.2m.

They all then looked at sharing services to save cash instead, to save £2m, he said, but this ‘Pathfinder’ scheme fell apart last month.

A much vaunted ‘transformation’ project to change how the council works, involving up to 500 job losses, had not delivered fast enough, he said.

Cllr Julia Wassell was amongst critics of the cuts.

He said: “The upshot is, at this turning point, we are having to consider changes to frontline services.”

There was a lack of a capital strategy – physical building works – and this has put pressure on running costs, he said.

Cllr Brand, a member for Chesham North West, branded the cuts ‘a knee jerk reaction’ that would affect the ‘most vulnerable’.

Yet cabinet member Cllr Steven Adams said there was ‘no sense and consistency’ to the Lib Dems’ argument and said the party abstained for voting for a single ‘unitary’ council.

He said: “If we don’t make them now we make them worse for our residents later. This council has always lived within its budget and I will be supporting the recommendations.

“Conservatives have shown leadership on this council. We will continue to make the tough decisions.”

Lib Dem Cllr Julia Wassell said the council was using the National Centre for Epilepsy and the Baby P fall out as a ‘scapegoat’ and warned that ‘minority groups’ representing women, children and ethnic minorities could take legal action.

Colleague Cllr Jenny Puddefoot said: “Those groups do not have a voice and us, as a corporate parent, are there to support and speak for them.”

Yet Cllr Patricia Birchley pointed to the pace at which Liberal Democrat MPs had moved to cut spending. “In Government, they debate the cuts overnight and locally they need many more months to consider them,” she said.

Cllr Freda Roberts, the longest serving member of the council, bemoaned the loss of the old committee structure of the council, which involved more councillors from all sides in decision making.

But the proposed cuts reflected the ‘thrust’ of suggested savings made previously by the council’s watchdog overview and scrutiny commissioning committee, said its chairman, Cllr Trevor Egleton.

He said: “We have no alternative but to act now and reduce costs.”

Cllr Valerie Letheren, responsible for roads, confirmed ten fixed speed cameras would be removed, as revealed by The Bucks Free Press on Tuesday.

This was because the road safety budget had been cut by the Government, she said – but pledged to plough any savings into road repairs. The county’s roads were battered by the December and January snow.

She said: “We are going to have a comprehensive look at how we manage speed in our areas.” Cllr Letheren said this would see more vehicle activated signs.

Lib Dem Cllr Chester Jones said cuts to domestic violence programmes sounded like a ‘horror story’. He warned they risked ‘opening a hornets nest and you will cause greater suffering’.

Yet Cllr Lin Hazell said the police were increasingly responsible for domestic violence prevention and intervention.

Cuts to education programmes that the council admits would hit ‘disaffected’ youngsters was also raised, with Lib Dem Cllr Niknam Hussain saying NEETS, young people ‘not in education, employment or training’, had doubled in the recession.

Cllr Steven Adams, responsible for education, said: “I would say that the young people not in education, employment or training probably will be impacted by this.” Yet he said a ‘huge number of issues’ were responsible for the rise and the impact would not be ‘massive’.

Lib Dem Julia Wassell asked if cuts to children’s social services would ‘make it more likely that a child death will occur in Buckinghamshire’. This led to cries of ‘shame’ from Tories.

Protection boss Cllr Lin Hazell said: “This does make the job harder, I would accept that. I cannot put any guarantee in this area.”

Yet she said ‘all the money in the world’ couldn’t prevent deaths at the hands of others. It was essential the public and council made clear what its priorities are, she said.

Deputy leader Cllr Bill Chapple was then questioned about why he had only put forward £88,000 worth of savings.

Cllr Brand said 19 council ‘local area forums’, where communities meet to share concerns, could be scaled back to save £500,000.

Yet Cllr Chapple said: “The budget that I hold has been drastically reduced over the last couple of years.” And he said ‘locality working’ is ‘one of our highest priorities’ and was recognised by the coalition Government.

And he knocked back a call for The Buckinghamshire Times – a magazine delivered free to homes about the four district councils and BCC – to be scrapped, saving BCC £105,000.

“I will not be able to scrap it just like that even if I wanted to. There is an agreement between the five authorities,” he said.

There were groans from Tory councillors when Cllr Wassell said ‘there seems to be a gender differential’ when looking at cuts of £6,000 from Cllr Shakespeare’s leader’s budget compared to other cabinet members.

But he said it ‘accurately reflects the size of the leader’s budget’.

Cllr Shakespeare finally urged support for his cuts. He said: “While others may shy away from difficult decisions, we have to take responsibility for dealing with this decision now.

“We have to take decisive action on behalf of the council taxpayers.”

The vote was, of course, a foregone conclusion. The Conservatives have a comfortable 46 to the Lib Dems’ 11, and passed 35 to ten. Now many will head off for a summer holiday – ready to face the gloomy autumn ahead.