New Year Message from Council Leader, Serge Lourie (Twickenham & Richmond Liberal Democrats)

New Year Message from Council Leader, Serge Lourie

December 28, 2009 5:13 PM

lourie • Cllr Serge Lourie writes: "AS 2009 draws to a close, we look back at a year in which the Council has continued to provide excellent services. In the national "place survey" we had the second highest satisfaction level of any council, ranked after the City of London. This is remarkable as we receive by far the lowest government grant per head. It is a tribute to staff that we manage to produce so much with so little money.

We have just received the results of the first Comprehensive Area Assessment in which we were "performing well". This also confirms there is "effective partnership working in Richmond with strong community leadership provided by the Council". We want to produce the best services we can with available resources, working closely with partners. There were many achievements during the year:

• An "outstanding" Ofsted grade for Children's Services in which we were ranked in the top 10 authorities;

• Converting our vehicle fleet to run entirely in recycled biodiesel;

• One of the highest recycling rates in London at 42%;

• Primary schools again been ranked best in the country. We will be investing in providing more spaces;

• Rebuilding four of our secondary schools with an investment of £100 million.

• Taking the lead in delivering self directed support through Adult Services where we are performing "well";

• The best park in London at Terrace Gardens and the best cemetery in the country;

• Working with our partners, we are helping individuals and companies face the recession with some success.

As a result of the economic crisis, we must cut our cloth to a new economic reality. We are looking closely at our spending as we must provide services more economically. We assume we must reduce spending by at least 10 %. This will be difficult as we start from such a low base. We get a very bad deal from the government when it comes to funding and this year was no exception. My colleague, Cllr Stephen Knight, has written to the minister, John Denham MP, and we await his reply. 2010 will be challenging. We are clear that we will only achieve our priorities by working closely with our partners such as the police, health service, voluntary sector, businesses and local residents.

Richmond upon Thames Liberal Democrats: