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Cllr Phil Davies: Thank you Mr. Mayor. Mr Mayor, we need tonight to set our budget for next year in perhaps the most difficult set of circumstances this Council has
ever faced. Mr Mayor in his five years in power David Cameron will have cut funding to local government by 40%, by the end of 2016
this Council's main revenue grant will have been cut by over 50% since 2010. This is a huge reduction and the government
has hit the most disadvantaged areas the hardest, Mr Mayor this is a scandal. The most deprived areas are shouldering
the greatest reductions in government funding while some of the wealthiest areas will find themselves better off. Mr Mayor this financial year the Prime Minister's own local authority
of West Oxfordshire, one of the least deprived areas in the country actually received an increase in its spending power while some
of our most deprived areas on Merseyside are dealing with the most significant reductions. The consequences of this policy have been devastating.
Local services decimated, massive job losses, councils predicting imminent bankruptcy, some actually saying that they may be unable to guarantee their ability
to provide even statutory services and at a time when so many people are struggling with rapidly escalating energy bills,
prices rising faster than wages and benefit cuts David Cameron is refusing to rule out cutting the top rate of tax yet again.
This affair is absolutely shameful. If the last four years have taught us anything it's surely that we need a government
which governs for the many, not the few and in terms of local government we need a government that distributes funding in a fair way and a Secretary of
State that treats hard working councils and councillors who do their best to serve their residents with respect not contempt.
Mr Mayor, when my party took over the administration of this Council in May 2012 we faced a hugely challenging set of circumstances.
We inherited a set of bad budgets and bad debts culminating in a £17 million overspend inherited from the previous administration.
Government cuts of £109 million over three years cut off a third of our net revenue budget. Growing demand for many of our services as a result of demographic change,
factors such as an aging population and an organisation with poor corporate governance, weak management and a silo mentality.
Mr Mayor, I'm proud that through the hard work of Members and officers supported by external experts on our Improvement Board Wirral is one of the fastest improving
councils in the country and we've put the Council's finances on a firm footing to such an extent that the latest financial monitoring statement from the Director of Resources
reports that the Council has an underspend of £982,000. Mr Mayor our approach to the budget setting has been to use our
overarching goals attracting jobs and investment, protecting vulnerable people & communities and narrowing the gap in inequalities as our key priorities in shaping our
budget. I am proud of the fact that we've listened to our residents in framing our budget proposals. The What Really Matters exercise we conducted last year, one of the
largest consultations in the country genuinely influenced our decisions on budget options that we proposed to Council last December. However I will not deny
that we've had to make some difficult decisions £48 million of cuts this year, £27 and a half million next year. I've said many times that I did not come into politics
to make cuts and if I was given a choice of course I would not wish to cut any services. However given that 85% of our incomes comes from central government
we are in the invidious position of having to make these decisions in order to set a legal budget. But let me make one thing clear Mr Mayor in spite of what
the opposition may say, responsibility for these cuts that we've had to make on this Council lies squarely at the door of this Tory/Liberal Democrat
coalition government and the parties opposite should be ashamed of what they've done to Wirral and this country.
Mr Mayor if I can now turn to our budget proposals, I'm pleased there is consensus around at least a number of items in the Labour Budget.
The £7.6 million of growth in measures to support older people, younger people with learning disabilities and adoptions and special guardians. £1 million to enhance
early intervention, £2 million invested in upgrading Europa Pools, Guinea Gap and West Kirby. I'm pleased that we've been able to use £400,000
from the waste development fund to reinstate monthly cleansing of entries and I'm also pleased that we'll be continuing our funding commitment to constituency committees
over the next year. I'm pleased that we'll ensure that the Williamson Art Gallery can operate while the action group which has been looking at new ways of delivering this valued facility
and finalising its business plan and I'm also pleased at being able to provide reassurance that no funding will be withdrawn from school crossing patrols where
agreement cannot be reached with schools. With regard to our staff I'm pleased that we were able to maintain a generous voluntary severance scheme, I'm also pleased that
under this Labour administration this Council became a living wage Council last year
and I now want to go further and I want Wirral to become a living wage Borough. Mr Mayor I think it's a
shame that yet again the Conservative Group in their amendment is attacking our staff by deleting the funding for full time trade union officials.
I have said many times that trade unions play a vital role in achieving good industrial relations and working with trade unions in
partnership is the sign of a progressive organisation. Mr Mayor with regards to next year's council tax I'm pleased to announce that we will freeze
the council tax in 2014/15. Providing the government doesn't change the rules we also aim to freeze the council tax in 2015/16.
We've been able to do this because the government have been forced to change its policy in response to the lobbying that this Council and others
that the freeze grant should be built into the base budget. Well let me make it clear Mr Mayor the freeze grant of £1.3 million whilst welcome,
pales into insignificance against the £120 million which this government has cut from Wirral Council's budget and if the government is really serious about
helping councils like the Wirral they should reimburse the lion's share of this £120 million. Mr Mayor, the council freeze
will I believe will help all residents of the Borough. We will not impose an extra burden on council tax payers, hopefully for the next two years. We will continue
to provide a discount to the vast majority of pensioners and we are putting £300,000 into the budget to ensure the poorest in our communities don't have to pay more
following the government's disgraceful cut to Council Tax Benefit. Mr Mayor, these measures are important, but in contrast to the Tory amendment which proposes a
series of largely short-term one off spending commitments, this administration is also proposing a £1.5 million house building program funded by
a mixture of in year underspends and borrowing to kick start housing in those areas of the Borough which have lost out after the housing market renewal program
was so callously cut by a stroke of Eric Pickle's pen, an absolute disgrace.
Mr Mayor, the leader of the opposition is wrong to claim that Magenta Living could fill this gap. Official projections indicate we need
to build around about six hundred new houses each year for the next five years. Magenta's program will only be sufficient to meet a small proportion of this need and much of their
new build will be a need to replace units that they have demolished. Our program will generate a hundred new homes with the potential for substantially
more. It will benefit future generations of residents long after this budget has been passed. It will create a significant number of new jobs and apprenticeships
for our young people, most importantly because we know there is a strong link between good housing and good health it will contribute to reducing the gap in life
expectancy, a key problem which has blighted Wirral for far too long. Mr Mayor, in conclusion given the background I
outlined earlier, this has been perhaps the most difficult budget I've been involved in setting. I would remind Council we still have a huge financial challenge ahead of us.
We need to achieve additional savings of £44 million over the next two years and the remodelling work which was discussed at the Members' seminar last week at the
Floral Pavilion is essential if we are to deliver these savings and continue to provide good quality services. Mr Mayor I think it's essential that we continue
to lobby the government to rethink the grossly unfair way in which it distributes funding to councils. I have to say I find the Tory Group's proposal to withdraw
from membership of SIGOMA, an organisation which has spoken loudly in favour of local government to be deeply, deeply cynical. Mr Mayor
although we've had to make some difficult decisions I'm proud we've put the Council's finances on a sound footing and we are helping all households
with the council tax freeze in 2014/15 and hopefully the year beyond. We are putting extra money into the budget to meet our demographic growth, we are giving
additional help to pensioners, the long term unemployed and attracting new jobs and investments. We have listened to and acted on the views of our residents. Crucially
our house building program will leave a lasting legacy for future generations. Mr Mayor this is a budget to be proud of, it's a budget of a progressive Council
with a clear vision for the future and a commitment to social justice and I commend it to the Council.
Cllr Jeff Green: I will of course be brief Mr Mayor. Mr Mayor, firstly let me say how
much I welcome and I'm sure this is shared by the entire Council the fact that the Coalition government's economic policies are working
and the UK economy is now growing faster than any other major European economy. Businesses have created
1.6 million new jobs and unemployment has come down sharply. I'm sure we will also welcome the fact
this government has allowed hard working people by amongst other things cutting income tax for the typical taxpayer by £590,
giving a saving of £360 on petrol that will go on this week and of course freezing Council Tax. Mr Mayor, what a
difference to the economic mess the government inherited when they came to power. Labour had maxed out the national credit card, doubled our
national debt and taken us to the brink of bankruptcy. They left Britain with the biggest budget deficit in the developed world and in our own peacetime history borrowing £1
in every four we spent resulting in payments of £120 million every day just to cover interest. So Mr Mayor
even the local Labour party must surely now admit bearing down on public spending was and remains an absolute priority for any
sensible government. Even if the Leader of the Council overeggs the pudding somewhat by claiming that by 2016 we will
have seen our overall budget halved since austerity measures were introduced. I'm sorry Mr Mayor that's not overegging as I suggested it is in fact
utter tosh. Mr Mayor let me be clear whilst I regret that sending grant back to the government last year I do welcome the fact that the administration
have swallowed their pride and have last decided to freeze council tax even if they've been brought to this point kicking and screaming. I am however
Mr Mayor disgusted that the only people who'll see an increase in the direct contribution they have to make to Wirral services are pensioners.
Given that the Labour administration have retained their cuts to pensioner discount and removing it completely from some without any recognition of their means.
Mr Mayor this is completely unfair and I'm delighted that if our amendment is passed tonight we will right this wrong. We also note that by their own
hands the Labour administration increased the cost of living for an average family by £295.51 since April
2013. Therefore we demonstrate how the cost of living burden can be reduced by reverting to the pre April 2012
car parking charges, reinstating a year round free after three parking initiative, halving the charge for residents for garden waste
collection and freezing for one year at its current level Wirral Council tax fees and charges. We've also been able to find resources to ensure that funding
meant for the education of Wirral school children is not diverted to pay for the Council's responsibility to provide school crossing patrols. Now let me just be clear because I did check
on this particular point as I do on them all of course and that was made very clear that whatever the warm words of the Leader of the Council no move
has been made to put that money back into the budget and that cut remains in place. Mr Mayor it also allows us to switch
street lighting back on, increase the level of dog fouling enforcement, invest £1 million for an immediate programme to repair pot holes and improve Wirral's roads and pavements
and maintain our commitment to early intervention and Children Centres in the sure knowledge that failure to support young families in the early years will cost
Wirral Council taxpayers in the long term. So Mr Mayor, how are we going to find the resources to reduce the cost of living burden
and reverse some of Labour's more baffling cuts? Well we've looked to find savings where any hard working Wirral family who could scrutinise the Council's budget
would expect cutting back on the cost of ourselves, leaning the Council bureaucracy, cutting out duplication and being more ambitious to transform the entire Council.
How on earth can the current administration justify an alternative support to councillors budget, spending £130,000
on paying for trade union officials, a Council press, marketing and design department of twenty posts, spending £1.9 million on
items that are duplicated elsewhere in the Borough when cutting children's centres, school crossing patrols, switching off street lights and choosing to only make pensioners on
fixed incomes pay for the privilege? I also believe that with immediate action to increase the focus, ambition, discipline, rigour, risk management
and improved accountability for the transforming Wirral Council change project can deliver increased cash benefits this year.
Although I believe the current approach being adopted by the Leader of the Council does carry the risk of breaking any political consensus around the structural changes required