Kirklees - What we spend our money on.

Watch the Labour Group speeches made at the February 2017 Budget Council



Watch the Labour Group speeches made at the February 2017 Budget Council

 

Kirklees Budget 2017: Proposed, Seconded, Backed

At the Kirklees Council Budget meeting, February 2017, a budget proposal was put forward by the Labour administration.

Cabinet Member for Resources, Cllr Graham Turner, proposed the budget. The Deputy Leader, Cllr Shabir Pandor, stood to second the budget proposal. The Leader of the Labour Group and Council, arose to give his backing.

You can see all three speeches here:

 

Kirklees Council Budget Meeting - LIVE

CARE CRISIS

CARE CRISIS

Call for emergency £1bn care fund

In its submission to the Treasury ahead of March’s Budget, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (Adass) has urged ministers to deliver £1bn in emergency funding to prop up the social care system. The association argued that more elderly and disabled people would not get the care they need without extra money. Adass also said a survey revealed that 97% of council social services directors believe the Government's December package to boost budgets by £900m would make “very little or no difference” to funding pressures.The Daily Telegraph

Letter to David Cameron

Dear Prime Minister

Re: Number 10 Policy Unit dialogue on budget reductions

I noted with interest your letter to Cllr Ian Hudspeth, Leader of Oxfordshire County Council.

I also note references you made in the letter to the wider issue of significant reductions to the settlement for local government made by the Coalition government you led between 2010 and 2015 and the Conservative administration you now lead.

I welcome your concern about the impact of Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne’s cuts in frontline services in communities across the country. I trust you will be raising the strong views you expressed about the impact on frontline services in Oxfordshire with the Chancellor, Treasury ministers and officials.

We share the clear view you expressed to the Local Government Association in July 2009 that local government is officially the most efficient part of the public sector

In your letter to the Leader of Oxfordshire County Council you offered to ‘initiate a further dialogue with advisers in the Number 10 Policy Unit’ – an offer I’m sure you will make to all Council Leaders irrespective of political persuasion.

As Leader of Kirklees Council, I would very much welcome the opportunity to meet with your Number 10 Policy Unit and discuss how to deal with the cash reduction we have received in our settlement from your Government.

In Kirklees, we have had to make savings totalling £115million over the 2011-16 period and we still need to find a further £46m over the 2016-19 period. This means our total savings requirement from 2011 to 2019 is about £160m, which is the equivalent of £20m savings every year for eight consecutive years.

I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible so that we can benefit from any helpful insight the Number 10 Policy Unit can offer in relation to the Comprehensive Spending Review of November 2015.

Yours sincerely

Kirklees Lib-Dem Myth Buster #2: Supporting the Living Wage...or not?

It was interesting to see that on 17 February, the day before Budget Council, the Kirklees Lib-Dems were claiming they were going to support the implementation of a Living Wage for all Council employees.

They were good enough to declare their intention to the world, or at least the people of Kirklees, via Twitter:

 

 

 

Admirable as the sentiment was, sentiment is what it remained, as on the 18 February the Lib-Dem Group chose not to vote in favour of the Kirklees Labour budget proposals. Since it was Labour who had proposed committing in their budget to pay Kirklees Council employees the Living Wage, the Lib-Dems did not follow through on their very public announcement.

 

Perhaps people should remind the Lib-Dems that sentiment does not put food on the table, but a Living Wage would.

"Budget pledge to save Spen Pool made good" - Cllr Alvy

I’d like to welcome the budget line which makes good the pledge that was made in my by election campaign to save Spen Pool.

The Pool is ailing and in serious need of replacement. It is an oversubscribed facility and is used by 29 schools as well as the general public. This budget secures its rebuilding and expansion by the addition of 2 lanes.

Not only will we see a brilliant new pool for the whole of the Spen Valley but there will also be a new fitness suite and a new sports hall, to compliment the one being built at Whitcliffe, and it also shows our ongoing commitment to the Princess Mary Athletics Stadium.

This development brings fully inclusive and accessible sports facilities right into the middle of the Spen Valley. Its location is within walking distance of a number of schools and town centres, several large estates; it’s on main bus routes and is within minutes of major arterial roads and motorways.

The area around the pool itself has a large and socially diverse population, who will benefit from the health and wellbeing outcomes the Sports Centre will provide. This redevelopment will give both young and old an excellent sports and leisure facility for years to come, right in the heart of their community. 

Cllr Simon Alvy, Labour
Liversedge and Gomersal

Kirklees Council - Our budget challenge

The government is severely cutting the funding it gives us to deliver services. We've already saved £83m but we've got a further £69m to save. Watch this YouTube video to see what savings have already been made, how much services cost and how you can help contribute to the Kirklees community.