We (the council) cut 13million square meters of grass, not counting KNH land or some other departmental land. This is spread over 5,900 different sites. The Lib/Dems and Conservatives believe that the Cabinet should consult every member, and every member of the public on the maintenance of these sites.
Consulting with members and the public is something both the Lib/Dems and the Conservatives chose not to do whilst they were in control of the council. Since then the Con/Lib/Dem government took £180m out of our budgets.
They now want the Cabinet to make individual decisions on every site in Kirklees; they have delayed the decisions being devolved to District Committees and also want to keep the standards as they were set over 20 years ago as part of a tendering exercise.
Despite the £700,000 cut to the maintenance budget being made by full council last February, and briefings being offered to all parties on the council, they now claim they knew nothing about it, despite presentations being made to at least three of the District Committees, in public earlier in the year.
