This is the speech that the leader of the opposition, Lib Dem County Councillor Tom Smith-Hughes gave yesterday on the County Council Budget.
It’s astonishing that councillors get only one working day to study the 160 pages of the budget book!
BUDGET SPEECH 2010
In the time allocated I can address only a limited number of aspects of the Budget and the Council?s corporate priorities.
.I wish to start by acknowledging the considerable amount of work undertaken by both Officers ? including Margaret Lee, the Chief Financial Officer, and the Cabinet ? in putting together the Budget. However, it is quite frankly a disgrace that the Budget Book was not posted out to Councillors until last Friday. How can Councillors scrutinize or ask intelligent questions about a Budget of a gross ?2.2 billion and a Budget Book of over 160 pages, with many of the tables in small print, with a huge number of figures, when they have only one working day to digest the material and ask questions of Officers? I say to the new Leader of the Council – that is not an acceptable way to treat the Council and brings this Council into disrepute. It?s even questionable whether the late production of the Budget Book fully satisfies legal requirements, given that approving the Budget is the most important, single matter designated to this Council.
.Not only should the papers have been produced much earlier, but there should have been pre-Budget scrutiny of budget options and possible decisions towards the end of last year, so non-executive County Councillors could contribute to the process. Earlier discussions would also have allowed sensible consultation with the public, which the Council is supposed to undertake. The late production of papers has made it impossible to draw detailed conclusions about how good or bad the Budget is for the people of Essex – for example, it incorporates very significant efficiencies and other savings of ?88 million ? how much of these are cuts in services is difficult to identify in such a short time.
.Some cuts I can see, for example ? though, of course it is not mentioned in the text. On page 100, I see the Community Safety Budget has been cut from ?1.7 million to ?1.2 million and the Community Policing Budget from ?250,000 to ?150,000.
.The Liberal Democrat Group understands the difficult economic climate and the significant financial pressures facing this and other Councils, particularly regarding Adult Social Care, Waste, and the impact of lower interest rates. There are, of course, many areas of the Council where good things are going on. However, the vision of providing the best quality of life to the people of Essex and too many other public statements coming out of this Council, need to be tempered with greater realism and some degree of humility. There are some hard truths about this Council and its performance which the Administration need to face up to -say ?sorry? to the people of Essex, and put right.
.That?s especially true of Children?s Services in general, and looking after vulnerable children in particular. The Audit Commission, every year, assesses the overall performance of individual Councils. In early 2008 they downgraded their assessment of this Council from a 4 Star to a 3 Star Authority, largely because of poor performance in Children?s Services. At the end of 2008 Essex was assessed as ?inadequate? in keeping vulnerable children safe ? one of only 8 authorities in the country scoring so low. In December last year, far from the judgment improving, the Audit Commission?s overall assessment of the Council went down to only ?Adequate?, the equivalent of just a 2 Star Authority. Even worse, Essex was one of only 9 Education Authorities in the country, out of 152, to have its Children?s Services overall evaluated as ?inadequate?, the same verdict as Doncaster and Harringey. The earlier Improvement Notice served on the Council by Government for the inadequate safeguarding of vulnerable children was escalated. What was the County Council?s immediate response? To issue a spun press statement that the Government was pleased with its progress. Though I do believe the Administration now is acting with some purpose in this area, let us be clear that the independent evaluation of the Council?s overall performance, as well as Children?s Services, is totally justified. This Council is 1 of just 5 County Councils, out of a total of 30 receiving only an ?Adequate? rating and is the only one out of 5 counties in the East of England to get this poor rating.
.The first priority of any Council should be to look after the most vulnerable it has responsibility for. Why is one of the 9 new Pledges not ?To deliver a radical improvement in the Council?s Children?s Services?? The Council needs to get the basics right. However, the Administration has become obsessed with image. In promoting the concept ?EssexWorks?, huge sums of money have been spent advertising and selling the corporate Essex brand, including on expensive TV adverts.
.My Group accepts that the Council needs to look for efficiency savings so it can protect and enhance rather than cut back on frontline services. It must aim to deliver good quality, value for money services. However, the way it has handled the so-called ?Transformation Project? leaves much to be desired. Both staff and non-executive Councillors generally have not been involved as appropriate at various stages. The Council should be much more open, transparent and straightforward in its dealings. Also ? not forgetting the need to value, respect and speak honestly with the staff, who we all depend on in both good and difficult times.
.The Liberal Democrat Group has, for many years, been critical of the Administration of the standards and conditions of the roads and pavements, particularly in residential areas. When we have sought to put more money into the Budget the Administration has failed to accept Amendments, saying that ?there was enough money in the Budget?. Roads and pavements should never have been allowed to get into the state they have and the recent bad weather, opening new and previously filled potholes, reinforces how much more still needs to be done. My Group has also pointed out, on numerous occasions, the inadequate attention paid to the non-car users exemplified by the poor state of pavements, inadequate public transport provision and cycleway networks.
.At this difficult economic time we need the help of our voluntary organisations more than ever. Yet grants are only held at current levels or squeezed, whilst the pressures on the voluntary sector increase. The Citizens? Advice Bureaux do a remarkable job and they have seen demands for debt advice increase massively. We have twice, at recent Council meetings, asked for the underspend on the amount of money allocated to give a Council Tax discount to the most vulnerable members of our society to be provided to top up the money given to the CAB ? why was this not done?
.This year the Liberal Democrat Group is not moving a Budget Amendment. The totally inadequate time given to us – so that we could even find out what is actually is and is not in the Budget – makes that job impossible. The Administration states that its proposed Council Tax increase, at 1.9%, similar to last year is the lowest since Council Tax was introduced. What the Administration does not say is that it has set every Council Tax since 1995 and that in those 13 years the County Council?s Council Tax has risen by 135% from under ?500 per annum to nearly ?1,100 for a Band D taxpayer.
.One of the reasons the 1.9% tax rise is as low as it is – is because the Administration is using ?19 million from reserves, which had become excessive ? money, taken previously from the taxpayer, and not spent. Last year?s 1.9% Council Tax was also helped by use of a further ?18 million of the excessive reserves. These withdrawals – and a further recent ?20 million unplanned withdrawal from the reserves and contingency to fund the underspend on Children?s Services – partly due to a Budget that was clearly wrong when it was set – means that the general balance and general reserves will have fallen by over ?40 million over the 2 years to March 2011. The Council cannot continue to finance services out of reserves at this rate.
.We have regularly criticized the Council?s Waste Strategy for being too timid in its recycling targets and believe that a figure higher than 60% by 2020 can be achieved. Despite more money being available for recycling initiatives which we welcome, we believe more should be done to help boost recycling.
.We are also concerned that ? once again ? the underfunded Youth Service Budget is being cut from ?10.9 million this year to ?10.3 million in 2010/2011. That?s on page 45 of the Budget Book.
.As I previously said, the Administration has spent a lot of time promoting a corporate image and giving an overall rosier image than is justified. There is no doubt that the Publicity Budget should be cut significantly. The Council?s own published Statement of Accounts show the spend on publicity went up by 25% in just one year from ?4.8 million in 2007/2008 to ?6 million in 2008/2009. Some of the savings from the reduced Budget should be put into the underfunded services for young people.
.The damning OfSted Report, including the Assessment for Safeguarding Vulnerable Children, and the further downgrading of the Assessment of the whole County Council, and the way it manages performance, should be a sobering wake-up call to those running this Council. Basic services have been neglected and serious failings and shortcomings must be addressed. Irrespective of the result of the General Election, the financial situation facing the County Council and all local authorities will be very difficult. The new Leader of the Council must focus totally on meeting all of these challenges and I hope that he will work with, and involve, all County Councillors in a spirit of greater openness and inclusiveness in this task.
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Thank you Madam Chairman.Tom Smith-Hughes
9 February 2010
Good news though, the pavement on Hullbridge Road between Ferndale Road and Mortimer Road is being repaired or more accurately totally relaid. Work started on Monday 15th. Hoefully fully done before half term finishes.