Andrew,The Ealing Labour group are telling quite a few fibs about the cuts. First off they are about 28% of the council's grant from central government. The council also has income from council tax and fees and charges, eg parking charges, etc. That means that the total loss of revenue is more like 12.5%. This is hard to deal with but not as horrendous as it is made out by the Labour group. There are many ways to make the savings required. The Conservative group have challenged very few of the choices that Labour has made. We would have done many things similarly. Where we differ is that the Labour group typically look to protect the council as an institution first. The Tory group tends to favor user groups. For example we have challenged day centre closures. We might have offered the buildings to volunteers to run. Labour wanted to sell the buildings to contribute towards three new council offices so could not take this route. We might have challenged officers to slim the senior ranks more harshly and more quickly. We certainly would not have trimmed union reps by 20% whilst halving park rangers and envirocrime officers. The Conservative group accepts that savings have to be made. We would have made different choices. In 2010 - 2014 Labour say they need to make savings of £85 million. About half of this is loss of grant. The rest is new spending by the administration, inflation and interest on capital new programmes. In 2006 - 2010 the Tories carefully saved £60 million without affecting services.
Phil Taylor ● 5305d