Labour vote to reduce Care in the Community Budget.
At last night’s full council meeting Telford & Wrekin Council voted to remove £10.6m from the Care in the Community budget and instead spend £13.6m on the Pride in the Community project. This takes away money from the care of the elderly and vulnerable at a time when the needs of the elderly and numbers are increasing.
Spending money on Pride in the Community will mean that a lot of money is to be spent in one area to the detriment of the rest of Telford – roads right across the Borough are particularly likely to suffer, the council’s road budget is only sufficient to stand still, and not enough to raise the improvement of road surfaces which suffered years of underinvestment by previous Labour administrations, and damage from recent winter weather.
The Conservative budget would have protected care of the elderly and invested money in roads across the Borough.
The Conservative group believe that much money could be saved by working in partnership with other agencies and neighbouring councils. There is no Conservative plan to merge with Shropshire which is a lie perpetuated by the Telford and Wrekin Labour councillors. Other councils up and down the land are working in partnership with each other, often of differing political persuasions, and saving vast amounts of money in doing so. The question must be asked, ‘why do Telford’s Labour Councillors refuse to even consider this’?
Conservatives put forward a motion requesting that :
"This Council calls on the national Leaders of the three main political parties to give the Electorate in Telford & Wrekin and the country an unequivocal undertaking for an "in or out" referendum on membership of the EU before the end of 2017. This Council further undertakes to write to both Members of Parliament whose constituencies cover the Borough to formally request their help in achieving this goal".
The motion was defeated with all the Labour councillors voting against.