Its Cllr @JohnPaulCampion Who is Out of Kilter says Howard Martin Wyre Forest Labour #wfLab

Council Leader, Cllr JohnCampion’s comment that Labours alternative budget was ‘out of kilter’ by recommending an increase in Council Tax of just 1% more than the Tories from 2013 is a bit rich. It hardly stands up to close scrutiny when comparing it with the Tory performance running the Council over the last 8 years. The Labour rise works out at just a £1.98 increase more than the Tories propose each year. That is just about the price of one bottle of beer a year from Sainsbury’s!

Just to remind you what we are offering the people of Wyre Forest for the price of a bottle of beer, the key points are –

• £1.35m to part-fund construction of 34 mixed tenure “affordable” homes with Registered Social Landlords, (RSLs), e.g., Community Housing, in 2012/13 & 2013/14

 

• Appoint Empty Homes Officer, re-introducing a role currently not filled by the council, at a cost of £32,000 per annum.

 

• Annual grant of £50,000 to bring empty homes up to a habitable standard, so as to be able to be rented by an RSL for a period of at least five years.

 

• Other proposals are to spend £50,000 per annum on a Business Development Manager with a specific remit for business start-up in the area and tourism-related initiatives plus general marketing of Wyre Forest as a destination and £1000 per Councillor to spend in the community on projects and support

 

The negative comments on this come from a Tory Council who had £20m in the bank when they took over the council in 2004 giving them £2m interest income every year to put into the Budget which saved council tax payers that much on their Council Tax Bill year on year. The Tories have WASTED EVERY PENNY by

• Spending over £10m on new offices the public don’t want.

 

• Built a cemetery for £5m that includes a scenic tour of Wyre Forest to get there through bad planning.

 

• Intend to spend another £10m on one new leisure centre for the whole district, when we currently have 3, with money mainly borrowed over 30 years and expecting YOU to pay it back at up to £10 a year on your Council Tax!

 

• Lost £9m investing in dodgy foreign banks – only half has been recovered. More interest and revenue income lost which you make up in your council tax.

 

• They continue to line their own pockets by paying themselves bigger allowances (totalling £50k per year) than any other Council in Worcestershire, ignoring an independent external review  when it told them to stop.

 

• Have cut dozens of council jobs and services, to the detriment of the community.

 

That’s over £30m wasted with money now being borrowed to fund it and the Council now in debt costing YOU money to pay the interest and repayments! Then they accuse LABOUR for wanting to add just £1.98 A YEAR to your council tax bill to benefit YOU and the service you receive and to start to unpick the harm their stupidity has done.

Doesn’t stop there though – it goes right through the whole self serving party.

The MP -

-       recently held to account for accepting “gifts” of nice days out which had nothing to do with his role of representingWyreForest

-       constantly commenting in the local press on subjects with which the majority disagree  – Trinity School becoming free – in support of bankers bonuses –  removing child benefits payments for those on other benefits over £26k pa -removing the subsidy on wind farms – privatisation of our forests – the list goes on and on.

Then the national party – with whom we are “all in it together” –

-       Reforming (destroying) the NHS and even squabbling amongst themselves now with parts of a policy that failed when Major was PM. Now party members want to back off because it “will cost them votes”, not because it will lead to the continual decline in the NHS through backdoor privatisation and it is wrong

-       Changing to a draconian benefits system which penalises the most needy and will hurt children most

-       Cutting tax credits to unemployed and part time workers by up to £4000 pa

-       Breaking national agreements on public sector pensions

-       Sacking hundreds of public and private sector workers

-       Destroying employment protection laws brought in under Labour

-       Bringing in fees for higher education

-       Cutting the students allowances

-       “Privatising” education through bringing the “market” into free schools and academies instead of services through LEA’s.

-       Condoning massive bonuses to senior executives whilst penalising the low paid and unemployed

Seems helping the “haves” to the detriment of the “have not’s” is still top of Tory ideology! Perhaps the local Tory leadership should actually reconsider just who “is out of kilter” with the needs of the community he serves?

Howard Martin Wyre Forest Labour

Feb 2012

Wyre Forest District Council Budget : Labour Group 2012/13 Alternative Proposals