Shameful Coalition politicking continues ...

Since the Council’s recent budget meeting, the shameful behaviour of Conservative and Liberal Democrat politicians has continued.

Today, I was in the St Austell office and spent time with a number of staff who were truly shell-shocked by the Coalition decision to slash budgets and cut jobs across the authority.

But the Deputy Leader of the Lib Dems Alex Folkes has had the audacity to spin the result of the vote in an offensive manner. Not only is he claiming that the Lib Dem / Tory budget “will actually boost jobs numbers, not cut them,”

But he is also accusing other councillors of “scare-mongering about where the axe will fall.”

Lib Dem MP Stephen Gilbert has expressed delight “that the Liberal Democrats … have succeeded in freezing our council tax, and investing in our services …  achieved by simply maintaining our council tax collection rates, cutting the council's spend on self-promotion, and reining in the wastage on external consultants.”

This is truly unbelievable and shameful nonsense from the Liberal Democrats, that bears no relation to reality.

In order to be balanced, I note that Conservative MP Sheryll Murray has tweeted an attack on MK, as follows:

“Very disappointed that MK are supporting an increase in Council Tax during these economic times. Shame.”

What is shameful is that the Conservative and Tory Coalition is slashing £546 million from Cornwall Council over a four-year period, while attempting to play politics over a modest council tax increase.

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On May 2nd, voters will be going to the polls to elect 123 new Cornwall councillors. Are you angry with the antics of Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors? Do you agree that we deserve better?

Then why not help us to get more Mebyon Kernow councillors elected or even stand as a candidate for a party committed to the protection of our vital public services.

If you want to find out more, you can phone me on 07791 876607.

Lib Dems and Tories vote through more cuts at Cornwall Council - part 3

In my anger at what happened at yesterday’s budget meeting, I am struggling to find words to express my feelings. I would like to share a couple of comments from council colleagues with whom I agree.

The first is Cllr Andrew Wallis (Independent). He wrote:

“For less than a price of a (weekly) chocolate bar, services and functions could have been saved. But I guess having a good election leaflet is better than doing what’s right for Cornwall.

“Staff who work so hard delivering services must feel so undervalued. I spoke to many staff who all wondered if they had a job after today’s vote. Some were in tears. Others just could not believe what had happened. It may have been forgotten by some councillors, but staff are also residents, who can vote and will no doubt be very tempted to put an X in a different box in May. 

“However, the most unsettling part of the day, was when Councillors were gleefully smiling that the motion they supported was carried. It was sickening to watch and I was ashamed to be in the council chamber with them.”

The second is Cllr Jude Robinson (Labour). She wrote:

“Yesterday, I saw politicians as others too often see us, more concerned about election chances than about the people we serve.

“I don’t claim to be better than anyone else, more virtuous or whiter than white. As I often say: ‘only human’. But I do not want to be associated with that kind of politics. In May when the election comes along, the yellow Tories can send an army of volunteers to my ward if they like with leaflets crowing about their tax freeze that saves people around 42p a week. They won’t be telling people about the services that will come to an end or the charges that will be raised or the people put at risk. If I lose on that basis, it’s fine by me – it’s not worth winning a seat with blatant dishonesty.

“In more than 20 years of campaigning and involvement in politics, I have never witnessed such appalling, self serving, shabby, gutless, petty manoeuvring as I did yesterday at County Hall.  I am so sorry that the people of Cornwall are let down in this way.”

I so wish to put it on record that I agree with that last paragraph and wish that I had written it.

Lib Dems and Tories vote through more cuts at Cornwall Council - part 2

It is 24 hours since the majority of Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors came together in an unholy alliance to vote for no rise in council tax.

I am still extremely angry at how they could so casually have voted for yet more cuts and 135 job losses, without any thought about the impact on the people affected.

Yesterday, I was approached by a number of staff who were absolutely devastated at what had happened. Some were in tears. Many are in teams that have just been through reorganisations and redundancy rounds. And now there is more uncertainty and they know jobs are under threat once again.

What most upset me was the nature and demeanour of certain councillors, who were laughing and joking as they voted to cut services. Some even praised our “excellent” staff before voting away their jobs, in order to get a “we voted for 0% increase” headline on their upcoming election leaflets.

I do hope that the electorate sees through the cynicism of so many of their councillors.

And today, I saw a number of senior officers, who are struggling to understand how they can make the cuts that the local representatives of the Coalition parties voted through – damaging cuts such as the likely £855,000 that will be cut from Adult Care and Support, or the £479,000 from the smaller Strategy, Localism and Communications budget.

The situation is dire and I remain disgusted with the cynical short-termism of the Coalition and the majority of their local councillors.

Lib Dems and Tories vote through more cuts at Cornwall Council - part 1

Yesterday’s budget debate at Cornwall Council was a total shambles. The Conservative and independent administration put forward a modest 1.97% increase in council tax – which would equate to a rise of 41p a week per band D property.

Both the Liberal Democrat and Conservative groups put forward amendments for no council increase.

The Liberal Democrat amendment was debated first. Councillors were told that it would lead to 135 job losses and cuts to a wide range of council services. It was a poor and damaging amendment, and was put forward by the Lib Dems specifically to be voted down by the other groups on the authority so they could crow about attempting to keep council tax down on their election leaflets.

But the Lib Dems were outflanked by the Conservatives who backed the amendment – it was opposed by Independent, MK and Labour members.

I am outraged at what happened and I will be commenting in more detail later today. But for now, my contribution to the debate was as follows:

This is an important day for this Council. And I believe we should – collectively – be doing what is best for Cornwall.

And we should be doing the best we can to safeguard the public services that we provide.

I have listened to what prominent members of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat groups have had to say; I have listened to their arguments for no rise in council tax – and it fills me with dread.

I am saddened that the priority of the two main groups on this council is political posturing and what goes in their election leaflets.

I am particularly saddened at the extremely short-sighted approach to this year’s budget debate.

This cannot be allowed to be a political game, and it disturbs me that members from both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have privately told me that freezing council tax was the wrong thing to do – but that they would be voting for it because of the election.

But they have also said that they will be voting for the freeze because of the election and/or the machinations of their opponents.

That is shameful.    

We should be doing what is right for Cornwall. And that is why the MK group will not support either amendment calling for no rise in council tax.

The amendments are damaging.

We have no intention of voting for (i) the removal of the communications budget, (ii) the destruction of the localism team, (iii) yet more staff redundancies or (iv) cuts to member budgets which support small community budgets.

I would ask that members focus on the big picture today. The Coalition has slashed our grant funding – for which both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats – have to take equal responsibility.

And when councillors address the scale of the cuts – they often quote the so-called “savings target” of £170 million we are expected to achieve over a four-year period which we are only half-way through.

But the reality is that this level of cuts – if you add in the extra assaults on local government budgets such as the localisation of council tax – it equates to a reduction in spend of £546 million over four years.

Your government has reduced the “spending power” of this authority by £546 million.

That is the key point. The Coalition Government has reduced the spending power of this authority by £546 million.

In an email from Cllr Ferguson which I read this morning, she blames the profligate spending of the previous government for the cuts.

Indeed, we hear much from Coalition politicians about the need to cut the deficit, to reduce debt, and for everyone to – what is it you say – “share the pain.”

But the cuts to local government funding have been truly disproportionate – the cuts have been above and beyond what other government departments have experienced.

And you have been largely silent on this key issue – preferring to support the Coalition in its ideological attempts to dismantle local government.

Now I would not be foolish enough to stand here and claim that there were not efficiencies to be made from 2010 onwards, but the level of cuts are damaging in the extreme.

And that is why we have problems with so many of our budget envelopes and why this administration cannot find the money to fund public toilets, to repaint double yellow lines, or resurface pot-holed roads, or even properly maintain its own buildings.

We should be sending a strong message back to the Government that the cuts are too deep and need to be reversed.

And members of this authority should know better than to grandstand on the issue of council tax.

The MK group has had the issue with the detail contained within all budgets from this administration, but today we need to focus on looking ahead and shoring up the base budget as best we can.

I appeal to everyone in this chamber to put politics to one side and to retreat from the gamesmanship that has dominated the last few days.

We will be backing the Cabinet recommendation and re-affirming our commitment to the delivery of quality public services.