My thoughts on the Cornwall Council budget

In the last week of October, the draft emergency budget of Cornwall Council was published by the ruling Conservative and Independent administration.

This budget was prepared on the basis that central government funding would fall by 30% over the next four years, though there remains great uncertainty what monies will be available in the future. The announcement from the Coalition that the main cuts would be 7.1% per year appeared less onerous, but subsequent information suggests that the cuts might be worse than 30% overall.

It is claimed that Cornwall Council’s budget will generate “savings of around £160 million over four years with £75 million achieved next year.” It also proposes to hold negotiations about employees’ terms and conditions to “save” a further £20 million, and it has identified £10 million of cuts from front-line services.

Last week, “backbench” councillors such as myself had our first opportunity to consider the proposals in detail through five meetings of the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committees.

I attended all five meetings and it was certainly a frustrating week. We heard much management-speak about efficiencies, rationalisation and streamlining, but in many areas we were presented with staggeringly little detail about how the so-called savings would be achieved.

The leadership of the Council has proposed significant cuts to a wide range of individual services, but clearly did not want their fellow councillors coming forward with anything more than minor tweaks.

They certainly did not want us to challenge the fundamental basis of the budget and its many parts.

But some of us did question how certain services such as Leisure could withstand a 44.8% cut or how Libraries could cope with a cut of 25.3%. We challenged whether such cuts were deliverable, whether they were appropriate in the first place or should be reduced in scale. We asked how council services might be affected and queried where redundancies might fall. Many of the responses were certainly less than illuminating.

There was more detail about some of the proposed cuts to front-line services and potential increases in charges. As a consequence, discussions about whether to increase the daily charge for Truro’s Park and Ride from £1.30 to £1.50, for example, took much, much longer than debates about the major restructuring of parts of the Council.

Pressure from members of the public and councillors has however brought a rethink in a small number of areas. The Cabinet backed down on their proposal to cut bus subsidies for evening and weekend travel, they agreed to look again at the loss of post-16 education transport subsidies and there was also a reprieve for Camelford Leisure Centre, at least for now.

The process continues and many of us intend to carefully scrutinise the emerging budget as carefully as possible.

Devonwall Bill - update

Last night, the Parliamentary Voting Systems and Constituencies Bill was voted on for the Third time. It was supported by a total of 321 votes to 264.

I am extremely disappointed that all six Cornish MPs voted for the Bill. I had hoped they would have opposed the legislation, once the pro-Cornwall amendment had been defeated. Indeed, I had hoped that they would put Cornwall before their political party.

For the record, I understand that Andrew George MP rebelled by also voting against the Bill.

95% of Coalition MPs voted for Devonwall

Further to yesterday's blog about the Report Stage of the Parliamentary Voting Systems and Constituencies Bill, I have looked in detail at the vote.

The amendment was moved by Charles Kennedy and sought to protect parliamentary boundaries in a number of areas including parts of Scotland, Anglesey, the Isle of Wight and Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly.

As noted previously, it was voted down by 315 votes to 257 votes.

All six Cornish MPs voted to support Kennedy’s amendment, but unbelievably they only won the support of twelve other Conservative / Liberal Democrat colleagues which included Scottish MPs and the member for the Isle of Wight. The MPs were as follows:

Conservatives
Peter Bottomley (Worthing West)
Philip Davies (Shipley)
George Eustice (Camborne and Redruth)
Philip Hollobone (Kettering)
Sheryll Murray (South East Cornwall)
Sarah Newton (Truro and Falmouth)
David Nuttall (Bury North)
Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight)

Liberal Democrat
Andrew George (St Ives)
Stephen Gilbert (St Austell and Newquay)
Mike Hancock (Portsmouth South)
Charles Kennedy (Ross, Skye and Lochaber)
Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West)
Alan Reid (Argyll and Bute)
Dan Rogerson (North Cornwall)
Bob Russell (Colchester)
Adrian Sanders (Torbay)
John Thurso (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)

Over 95% of Coalition MPs voted against the amendment. This included Conservative MP Mark Prisk who spent the months leading up to the General Election masquerading as a Shadow Minister for Cornwall.

I am however pleased to report that the pro-Cornwall amendment was supported by MK’s sister parties from Wales and Scotland. Three Plaid Cymru and five SNP MPs voted in favour of the amendment, along with a member of the SDLP, two members of the DUP and all the Labour MPs present.

Home again ...

The reason that I have not blogged for ten days is because I have been on holiday in North Wales (that's me in the above picture).

It was good to refresh the batteries. I have now been home for 24 hours and I am already wistfully looking ahead to my next holiday … next year.

Today, I attended the first of five scrutiny committee meetings looking at aspects of the proposed Conservative / Independent budget for Cornwall Council which sets out to achieve a savage cut of 30%. More comment to follow soon.

I also found out that I have been deliberately misrepresented on a Conservative leaflet in the Camborne Town Council by-election that is presently taking place. Obviously, I now have to chase the Tories to demand an apology. More comment to follow soon.

And earlier tonight, the Coalition voted down an amendment to protect the integrity of Cornwall in terms of parliamentary seats. The vote was 315 votes to 257. To be fair to the Cornish MPs, I understand all six voted against the Government, but it seems that very few of their colleagues followed suit. A sad day for Cornwall. More comment to follow soon.

Devonwall issue not even debated

Like many people, I watched much of the debate on the Parliamentary Voting Systems and Constituencies Bill yesterday and found that the whole “spectacle” made me extremely sad and angry.

Amendments relating to Clause 9 were grouped into two blocks; the first relating to the number of MPs and the second to constituencies and related issues (including the protection of Cornish integrity). But MPs took so long talking about the total number of MPs that they did not get around to debating the other amendments.

I have already spoken to Stephen Gilbert and his frustration with the archaic approach of the House of Commons was palpable. The relevant clause has been agreed by the House, even though key elements have not been debated, but I understand Cornish MPs are already working to ensure that the importance of Cornish integrity can be addressed at a future date, perhaps at the Report Stage of the Bill.

The fight must continue, and I will blog again when I know more.