| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Cllr Ruth Cadbury at today's read-in | |
| Posted by: | Ed Mayne | |
| Date/Time: | 10/02/11 16:03:00 |
| Hazel First and foremost, congratulations on becoming Chair of the Hounslow Liberal Democrats. The LibDem Group on Hounslow Council proposed a 0.75% Council Tax increase in their alternative budget last year. A 1% change in Council tax roughly equals £1m in the Council budget. As I recall (from the public gallery as I was not a Councillor then) Andrew Dakers proposed that this be used for investment. So it is not really true to say, "Had this been implemented the cuts would have needed to be less severe in the next financial year". Had the increase gone ahead the budget would have grown and this still would have been cut this year, assuming of course (in this purely theoretical point) that a Tory-LibDem coalition government was still the outcome of the General Election. Not to mention the fact that £750,000 is a neglible part of this budget in any case. It is a drop in the ocean of the £60m savings required as a result of the cuts demanded by the Tory-LibDem coalition. Any investment the increase would have resulted in would not have been long term bearing in mind what has happened. I wasn't on the Council when the £500 Special Responsibility Allowance for Licensing Committee members was set up. So I can't comment on that. But I support its abolition. |