24/08/2026
LABOUR LIVING IN A WORLD OF FANTASY
Liberal Democrats cannot believe the Labour Party seriously believes that all the proposed Council savings will have limited impact on residents. This statement has been reported in the press following a series of briefings to councillors from all the parties.
Cuts are already having an impact on people but these are nothing compared to what will happen in the future. To claim the impact will be minimal is ridiculous and shows they are living in a world of make-believe.
Ā£39m of savings have already been identified and a further Ā£51m is planned. In total there is a Ā£179m gap until 2929/30. Officers admit these will fundamentally change service standards for the worse. Cuts cover just about every service whether it be social care, highway maintenance, parks, public protection and enforcement, parking charges, libraries, community centres and many more. From our Party briefing, we got the impression that most services are earmarked for a 25% cut. We were given an exact number for the proposed savings but not the total cost for services which would have enabled us to work out the percentage cuts for ourselves.
Given its poor track record, sadly we have little confidence that these proposed savings will be met by the Council. Setting targets is easy, but coming up with timed action plans is another matter. Most plans are promised for the future and require more work, but wishful thinking is quite inadequate.
We have now found out that an advert has gone out for a new Director of Growth at a salary of Ā£143K. One of the qualifications for the successful applicant is to be innovative, which is ironic because being innovative was something that got the Council into trouble in the past according to the Best Value Review. We want to know the total cost of all the personnel changes that have happened already or are planned to happen. Many senior officers have left for a variety of reasons and are being āreplacedā by other senior officers. What is the total cost of the Government Envoys and the consultants taken on to give advice?
Understandably morale of some staff is low and more redundancies will take place. Responses to queries to the Council have slowed down which further undermines public confidence.
For the good of all our residents, we desperately want the Council to succeed. We accept there is more openness than in the past but we need far more clarification of exactly what is happening so we can scrutinise properly.
