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Richmond upon Thames Liberal Democrats:Covering the constituencies of Twickenham and Richmond Park |
Tories scramble to hide over £3 million surplus cash: national economy used as cover for unnecessary local service cuts
February 3, 2011 10:14 AM
• [Feb 02]: DETAILS buried in official budget papers unveiled this week show Richmond Tories are planning over £3.25 million more in cuts than needed to balance the budget - resulting in massive surpluses next year, even with a Council Tax freeze. In order to hide these surpluses, they have artificially built in over £3.25 million of 'one-off' projects into the base budget.
Despite desperate spin about the impact of government grant cuts, Richmond is one of the country's least affected councils by recent government funding cuts, losing just 0.6 % of its spending power. The Council has healthy reserves of over £50 million and a budget surplus last year of £4.5 million. The papers confirm that the budget cuts result, in the main, from the Conservatives' ideological goal of "shrinking the influence of the state from people's lives." Local services being 'shrunk' include social care services such as the closure of intensive day centres, youth services and libraries.
Cllr Stephen Knight, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Opposition, said: "The Conservatives are attempting a most cynical con-trick - they claim they need to cut vital services, such as Tangley Hall day centre, children's services and Heathfield library, when really they will have a massive budget surplus next year, even with a 0 % Council Tax rise. The budget papers show they are adding to the base-budget millions of pounds of 'one-off' projects, that would normally be funded over many years, in order to hide their surpluses and justify the cuts.
"The Conservatives inherited from us a council with extremely healthy finances last May, including a £4.5 million budget surplus and reserves of more than £50 million. The government cuts have a much smaller impact in Richmond, because we received very little external funding in the first place.
"However the Conservatives seem determined to dismantle our services anyway, such as Heathfield library and Tangley Hall day centre, in order to fulfil their goal of 'shrinking the influence of the state from people's lives'. Most people want the council to fulfil a vital role in their lives, providing public services, and have no desire to see this ideological 'shrinking' of their local services."
• Council tax freeze at heart of budget proposals [press release Feb 02]
• Full set of finance reports for the Scrutiny meeting February 09
• Richmond Council's budget revealed: Council tax to be frozen and £1.5m to be spent on pothole repairs [RTT Feb 02]
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