The Conservative Group on T&W Council have published detailed budget proposals that contain key proposals which include limiting the heavy cuts to the Adult Social Care budget as proposed by the Labour Administration while, for the first time, producing a long term 5 year plan to invest in the Borough’s Highways infrastructure to achieve an acceptable standard on all roads.
The Conservative Groups proposals also support freezing Council tax in the Borough but reject the Labour Administrations proposals to spend £1.6m revenue and £8.0m Capital to tidy up the Borough as window dressing and a project for the future when finances allow.
Adult Social Care: The Labour Administration propose substantial cuts to the Adult social care budget of £6.0m in 2014/15 with a further reduction of £1.65mthe following year. These reductions are on top of a budget overspend of £2.8m during the current year, giving a total budget cut of £10.5m.
Conservative proposals will cushion the worst impact of the proposed cuts and provide a safety net of £3.5m, although this figure could be increased if savings proposed savings targets are increased by 2015/16.
Highways: After many years of under investment in this key infrastructure, Estimates produced by the Authority suggest that £7.1m would need to be invested every year over a 5 year period to raise the standard of all roads in the Borough. The Conservative Group accept this estimate and propose implementing this investment.
The Labour Administrations proposals, including Pride in the Community (PIC), would result in a continuing underinvestment in our roads of £24.5m over a five year period which would not lead to any improvement in our road system or realise savings from reduced maintenance, pothole repairs or insurance claims.
Council Tax: We welcome the Labour Administrations proposal to finally freeze Council tax for the Borough’s residents but condemn the tax increases over the past two years which have unnecessarily taken over £2.0m out of the pockets of local people and the local economy when a Government Grant for the same amount could have been accepted.
Safeguarding Children: We support the availability of a £1.2m draw down budget to support Children in Care and, while supporting the latest plan put forward by the Labour Administration, raise a concern that previous measures have failed to control costs.
Youth Unemplyment: We welcome a budget of £1.3m to tackle youth unemployment and, in particular, the commitment to eventually provide apprenticeship Schemes at the Council.
Labour Administration Proposals Not Supported:
Environment: A cut of £80K, (rising to £100K in 2015/16) to this budget is rejected and would be used to further enhance work with TWS on local environment/Quality needs, in particular due to our proposal to scrap the Administrations PIC scheme.
Parking Charges: The Labour Administration’s proposal of increasing revenue from car parking charges in the Gorge (£30K pa by 2015/16) and introducing new charges at the Town Park’s Dark Lane car park (£5K) are not supported. The increased charges in Ironbridge will be detrimental to tourism and local residents. Both increases fly in the face of the Council’s Free Parking policy introduced after the Labour Administration applied Car parking Charges in Borough Towns during 2010, but later withdrew the measure, after spending large capital sums introducing ticket machines, following pressure and a public outcry.
This measure is seen as an attempt to again reintroduce parking charges Borough wide.
CSOs: We would not cancel this budget cut and do not support it. CSOs provide a valuable element of community cohesion and policing, and the removal of one officer will have an adverse impact.
Conservative Savings Proposals: A full list of savings with Full and Part Year effect is attached at Appendix 1.
Staffing Levels/Remuneration Packages: To achieve a year on year saving of £1.5m it would be necessary to reduce staffing levels by a further 80 posts. The Conservative Group started this process while in Administration between 2017 – 2011 when, amongst other initiatives, a reduction of 25% was made to senior managers. However, we recognise that reducing staffing levels further would damage the Council’s ability to deliver services and therefore propose savings of £1.5m (£0.50m for 2014/15) which will be achieved by negotiating a range of changes to include a mix of the following:
a) Reduction in sick pay arrangements (Current estimates suggest that this costs the Authority up to £1.5m per year.)
b) A 2.25% reduction in pay grades would also realise a saving of £1.5m while protecting the current pay of employees on the National Minimum wage (NMW) to include proposed increases in NMW
c) In line with a number of other Authorities, the Conservative group propose the removal of this allowance, but supports the current mileage allowance scheme. The saving each year amounts to £300K
d) It should be noted that the Conservative Group produced proposals during the recent Boundary revive to reduce the nuber of Councillors on the Authority to save an estimated £250K per annum. This was not supported by the labour Administration who initially argued for an increase of Elected Members.
A mix of the above (excluding the essential car Users Allowance) would help us to protect jobs and vital services such as Adult Social Care and invest in the Borough’s infrastructure.
Partnership Working: We would increase partnership working and job sharing with neighbouring Authorities, and would welcome a close working arrangement with Shropshire Council as the other Unitary Council in Shropshire. However, any proposal to merge both authorities has been ruled out. It is estimated that modest savings of £87K per annum will be achieved in 2014/15 but we would continue to pursue this initiative vigorously to achieve a much higher level of savings.
Trade unions: The Conservative group recognises and support the contribution made by Trade Union representation at the Authority however, we question if it is right that Council Tax payers in T&W should pay £96K every year for Union Representation of council staff, some of which do not live in Telford & Wrekin.
Cllr. Adrian Lawrence (Conservative Shadow Cabinet Member for resources) said “In fully recognising the work loads that have been placed upon council staff following successive restructuring and redundancies, which have cut 1075 jobs since 2009, we very are keen to avoid further staff reductions which will adversely impact on services.”
However, we also accept the need for securing and protecting vital services to vulnerable people in the Borough and, at the same time, start repairing our infrastructure. Consequently we need to make difficult decisions and have proposed a range of choices to help achieve security for staff and the services they supply.”
Cllr Andrew Eade said “The labour Administration’s budget is fundamentally flawed as it seeks to spend huge amounts of money on short term environmental fixes in the Borough whilst making swinging cuts of £10.5m to the Adult Social Services, which will affect both the elderly, vulnerable and carers alike.”
“Their proposed expenditure on our roads will not even keep pace with maintenance needs, which will continue to deteriorate, despite their hollow promise to improve our highways. Now at least we have a clear choice as our budget proposals could be adopted and put into effect at the Council’s budget meeting in February.”
For more information see the attachmented document.