Councillors have been busy dealing with the annual budget-setting process that will hopefully reach its zenith at “Budget Council” today (Thursday 23 February).
Setting a legal, balanced budget for our city has become increasingly difficult since the Conservative government came into power 13 years ago, with year-on-year cuts to funding to local councils that leave Brighton and Hove £110 million a year short.
Unfortunately, current indications are that things will become even more difficult all the while they remain in power.
This Conservative government has broken our once proud country through lack of investment not only in precious public services that kept this country fit and healthy, but also crucially in enterprise and innovation.
Unfortunately, in addition, the Green administration’s mismanagement has made things worse.
They have wasted what little public money we have left through ill-conceived vanity projects such as the i360, the “Green Wall” and the Hanover LTN while letting basic services slip
- streets are dirty with graffiti tags
- pavements are broken with rotting leaves and overgrown with weeds
- communal bins are overflowing and kerbside bin collections are unreliable and
- public toilets are either closed or in appalling condition
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This Greens have lost sight of the priorities of our city’s residents.
However, Labour’s priorities in for this budget are simple
- restore basic services
- protect the most vulnerable and disadvantaged and
- support local businesses and our visitor economy
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These priorities are crucial in this “cost of living” crisis. They are driven by common sense with a focus on prevention and investment in people.
That’s why Labour’s proposed changes to the Greens budget would:
- reverse the proposed Green cuts to our lifeguards, Visit Brighton and Volk’s Railway that would cost our city more in the long run in terms of impact on tourism and income generation and potentially people’s lives
- save the Employability Service that helps vulnerable residents on to the job ladder, an invest-to-save measure again, and
- scrap Green plans to reintroduce library fines for children. It was Labour’s budget amendment last year that scrapped these fines and, now, at the first opportunity the Greens are attempting to bring back fines for children
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Labour also campaigned alongside our communities in forcing the Greens to U-turn on their plans to slash the budget for public toilets.However, we know that residents think it’s important to have clean and decent accessible toilets across the whole city.
So, Labour needed to go further with a budget amendment to invest a further £1.1 million into the refurbishment and restoration of dilapidated public toilet units by re-allocating capital from the Greens’ highly controversial LTN scheme, where residents in Hanover and Tarner haven’t been meaningfully consulted on design.
The LTN scheme is symbolic of a pattern of behaviour from this administration that sums up their tenure in office
- dogma over data
- ideology before evidence
- implementation without consultation
- foisting schemes on to communities instead of working alongside residents
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The Greens’ budget is a disappointing offer to our residents who are being asked to pay more for less, thanks to savage Tory government cuts and Green misadministration and projected losses from their vanity projects like the i360.
Labour’s amendments will improve this budget. But tragically from opposition we are only able to reallocate a small proportion of the overall budget.
The only way to truly improve this council’s offer to residents is with a Labour administration and a Labour government.
Councillor John Allcock is the joint Labour opposition leader on Brighton and Hove City Council.
Any more purple coalition votes planned, such as the one which would have made the whole city into a clean air zone if Labour and Tories hadn’t opposed it?
Massive political opportunism over the Hanover LTN. I know all parties get up to a bit of that, but only a party that, nationally, is now pretending that Brexit is OK would be capable of such a shameless volte-face.
How is it political opportunism? Cllr Allbrooke, Cllr Lloyd and other Greens claim the residents want it – so voting against it will be very unpopular. Or are they all mistaken…
Thank god they are scrapping the Hannover LTN. The consultation was a joke. Was there a box to tick to say :No I don’t want this’, of cause there wasn’t.
That would have been such a waste of money.
Labour – what are you doing to help small businesses in the city?
We pay business rates and get not a lot back in return, other than fines for leaving bin bags out now we are not allowed commercial bins, police don’t even turn up or care about begging, shop lifting or day drinkers.
Maybe time to cut them for Small Brighton and Hove based businesses, would actually take a weight of.
I wish they would clean up the town centre. Graffiti and drug addicts everywhere harassing shoppers and begging everywhere. Of course Labour won’t do this.