Firstly can
I say I agree with the Conservative point four
“Believes
that local authorities have a duty to spend public money with care and
prudence, in order to ensure that council tax rates are set as low as possible
for residents and that council tax rates provide value for money for the
taxpayer
Councillors
do not sit and think how much can we increase Council tax this year
What happens
is a list of increased costs including legislative and demographic changes are
calculated
Reductions
in expenditure that can be made are identified
Some are
accepted and some are ejected because they are unacceptable
Then the
shortfall has to be made up from reserves, fees and charges and council tax
I know of no
councillor who wants to increase council tax but it is the inevitable
consequence of the reduction in the rate support grant.
I can think
of no area of public service that provides better value for money than local
government.
No Council
increases the Council Tax for any other reason than to continue to provide
local services.
We also know
Council tax is hated by the rich, there is no way of avoiding it. No non
domiciled status or offsets to reduce the council tax bill.
Whilst not
as progressive a tax as the rates were
and I believe it should be made more
progressive it still means that those who are richer and in the larger
properties pay more.
The latest
budget has entailed increasing expenditure on health, which the Tories have supported,
and this has had the inevitable repercussion of reducing the support to local
government.
The
Conservative solution, in Education has been to reduce its expenditure
considerably and to devolve all money to schools.
This means
End to free
school transport
End to
Educational Welfare Officers
End of the
Education Psychology service
End to
Education otherwise than at schools
End to
Education support services
Plus other
centrally provided services
Or is this
another example of a Tory sound bite
Not thought
out
Made in the
expectation that they will never have the opportunity to exact their damage on
Welsh Education
The
Conservatives show their support for cuts to local government services
Can I now
assume that when cuts are suggested to services such as the Library service
The
Conservatives will not support keeping them open but say we want more to be
shut in order to save on council tax.
the
difficult financial situation facing local government is due to the UK
Conservative and their Little helpers the liberal democrats Government’s austerity measures and its effect on Welsh
public expenditure in general and local government in particular
We have seen
the repercussions of Government cuts to Council expenditure in England
Reduce
expenditure on Social Care
Leading to
the inability to discharge patients from hospital when their medical needs have
been met
Increased
numbers at A+E as social care collapses
No need to
take my word for it
Ask David
Cameron’s brother in law
Cardiologist Carl
Brookes, who is married to the Prime Minister’s sister Tania, spoke of the
‘extraordinary’ challenges faced by his own hospital trust in Hampshire over
the past few weeks.
It also emerged
that the trust, which is made up of three hospitals, is so stretched that it
has asked IT workers and other non-medical staff to help out on the wards
He said: ‘There are problems with access to adult services – we are
seeing a lot of frail, elderly people who need special care. If the back door
is blocked, it makes it difficult to get in the front door.’
