Newcastle’s Lib Dem Opposition have set out an alternative Budget for the City Council offering a better deal for North Heaton residents and a better way for Newcastle – a lower council tax increase and preventing Labour’s cuts by making alternative savings which avoid targeting vulnerable people.
Labour’s “Pay More Get Less” Budget:
- 4% council tax rise
- Another £1m cut to local services (street cleaning) – rapid response on litter, flytipping, graffiti to end –
- Axing lunch clubs & telecare for older people
- Massive cuts to social workers in adults & children’s services
- Cuts to mental health services
- Cuts to employment & careers help for young people
- £33m spend on refurbishment of Civic Centre – £7m on Barras Bridge “vanity scheme”
- No cuts to office costs, number of councillors, senior management team, PR and communication team. Great if you like council Facebook videos but not if you want streets swept!
The Lib Dem Alternative Budget focuses on greater council efficiency savings:
Our plans would keep open libraries, protect budgets for road safety and youth services which Labour are cutting, retain the older persons handyperson service, mental health support, Warm Zone funding, keep current levels of care for adults living in their own homes, and reverse Labour’s cut to street cleaning and bin collections. We’d use £158,000 in unspent public health cash to assist efforts to keep open Elswick Pool.
● Reduce council £12m utilities bill by £800,000
● Reduce council waste disposal bill by £350,000 by improving recycling levels to national average
● Achieve £1m savings by sharing more services with other local councils
● Generate an initial £5m in commercial income
● Cut one senior director post (already removed when Lib Dems ran the city but reinstated by Labour) & leader’s speechwriter – £0.25m saving
Our plans would keep open libraries, protect budgets for road safety and youth services which Labour are cutting, retain the older persons handyperson service, mental health support, Warm Zone funding, keep current levels of care for adults living in their own homes, and reverse Labour’s cut to street cleaning and bin collections. We’d use £158,000 in unspent public health cash to assist efforts to keep open Elswick Pool.
The council salted away an extra £39 million this year: it now has £92 million in reserves. We’d use £5m of this for one-off investment in pavement repairs.
DOREEN and GREG voted against Labour’s budget cuts. North Heaton’s Labour councillor voted for the cuts.
We say: Residents tell us the Lib Dems ran Newcastle council far better than Labour are doing now. We recognise funding cuts have made the council’s situation hard – but Labour’s poor choices are making the situation much worse. The council needs to make greater efficiency savings, not cuts.
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