Last night it was the Council’s annual budget setting meeting. The Liberal Democrats proposed an amendment to the Conservative budget plans. Our amendment proposed more police, greener Council buildings, more road fundings, and a Council Tax rise less than the Tories or Labour.
Sadly it was defeated despite Labour support because the Conservatives voted it down.
Here is the speech I made to propose it:
“Let me start by echoing Cllr Gartside and thanking Mr Owen and his staff for helping us with our amendment.
Their dedication to Bury continues to be appreciated by members of my group.
Mr Mayor, this Conservative budget is as unimaginative as it is unimpressive, and as uninspiring as it is underwhelming.
Cllr Gartside made an impressive speech, a welcome and refreshing change in the tone of recent budgets.
But this Conservative budget is disappointing, dull, and devoid of ideas.
We have looked to the Bury Conservatives for leadership.
They have failed.
They have no new ideas, and nothing new to add.
They have given us something that leaves me deflated, depressed, disillusioned.
David Cameron the Conservative Leader says “We can’t go on like this,” and yet the Bury Conservatives are continuing just as before, cutting away at services and changing nothing, nothing about them.
They do nothing differently.
Same story, different year.
David Cameron says that we are all desperate for change, and yet the Bury Conservatives have given us more of the same.
Actually they’ve given us a bit less of the same, but are charging us more for it.
Because despite David Cameron saying that Council Tax rises should be low, but yet again the Bury Conservatives have put up Council Tax by more than inflation, and amongst the highest in Greater Manchester.
In 2007 the Bury Conservatives put up Council Tax by 3.4%, Last year they put up Council Tax by 4.9%, this year 3.39%.
Someone paying £1,000 when the Tories came to power in Bury just three years ago, now faces a bill of over £100 more.
The Bury Conservatives really are the high tax party in Bury.
As the staff who work for us get a real terms cut in pay, the bills that they themselves help create, produce and distribute mean that they’ll be paying much more in the unfair Council Tax.
Mr Mayor, our proposal is different.
Our’s is a sensible tax level.
It doesn’t penalise the people of Bury with an above inflation rise like the Conservatives is when the precepts are added in.
Nor is it a vote-grabbing raid on reserves or a headline chasing 0% as Labour have proposed in previous years.
We respect the Council and the people more than that.
Our’s is a tax proposal that recognises the challenges we’re in, but also that the Council is nothing without its staff and its citizens and that we can’t ask them to pay too much.
Our plans will still preserve high quality services whilst at the same time allowing Bury residents to keep more of their money.
It is the fairer option.
Perhaps most disappointing of all in this Conservative budget though, is its cynicism.
The Tory plans to impose car park charges in my ward are awful.
The charges will damage trade, set back regeneration and take people and money out of Bury.
Worse though, is that the plans are borne not out of honest endeavour, but a simple desire to win votes in Prestwich by lying to voters in the papers and blaming the charges on me.
Cllr Holt was right. The charges are vindictive. They are nasty and wrong.
Cllr Bibby’s sneering untruths about these car park charges are beneath contempt, so we propose abolishing the charges and concentrating on improving the lives of the people of Bury, not making them worse just to remind me who runs the Town Hall.
Mr Mayor, Cllr Bibby has been given a chance to lead this borough, where I live and grew up.
A handful are given that chance.
His legacy so far is an angry staff, a disappointed public, and a catalogue of closures and cuts.
He does that legacy no favours tonight.
His party may soon be in power nationally.
But as a Conservative leader may be about to sweep into Downing Street, I advise the people of Bury to look at Conservatives closer to home before casting their votes.
The Conservatives propose cuts to children’s play areas, which the Liberal Democrats will reverse.
The Conservatives will cut our contribution to local forests and to the countryside service. The Liberal Democrats will reverse them too.
The Conservatives propose a budget of cuts and closures, the Liberal Democrats propose the opposite, a budget for a safer, greener and better Bury.
The Conservatives propose cutting £100,000 from Civic Halls despite a consultation still going on.
If there is one proposal which typifies this nasty and anti-democratic administration, this is it.
Their efforts to stifle debate seem to be getting worse.
Not one but two Task and Finish Groups which are still ongoing have been pre-judged by a Tory group intent on trampling on democracy.
Mr Mayor, I am proud of the Liberal Democrat proposals tonight.
Our’s is a plan which gives Bury new ideas and new ways of doing things
The Liberal Democrats will give more for Bury’s priorities whilst putting taxes up less than the Tories propose.
Our’s would be a green, local budget, protecting services and providing for the future.
We will do what the Tories won’t, and find savings in management efficiencies which could give hundreds of thousands for front line services.
And we will make sure that these services are sustainable both financially and socially.
Mr Mayor, as Councillors we need to lead the communities which elect us.
We have a responsibility to those who rely on us, and to people growing up in Bury today who will live here when we’re gone.
That’s why we propose tonight a fundamental shift in the way that the Council buys and uses energy.
The Tory plans for less than a quarter of a million pounds are nowhere near enough.
We will borrow eight times that amount, to make buildings more energy efficient and switch to greener energy providers, using interest free borrowing where we can.
Within 7 years the investment will have paid for itself entirely, but even in year one we will see over a quarter of a million pounds worth of savings in energy bills.
More importantly, these changes will make Bury a model borough for sustainable energy.
They show what we can do as Councillors to lead this borough.
We can change things. Really change things. If only we have the will.
See beyond the ballot box. See beyond May 6th, and look to the future of Bury.
This is something we can approve right here, tonight, to show the people of Bury that we mean business on climate change.
Let’s be the generation of Councillors that makes future generations proud of what we did here.
But Mr Mayor, beyond the aspirational, there are practical things we need to do now to give local people back their faith in this Council.
Time after time people say that, for them, the most important things the Council needs to get right are good bins, good parks, good roads.
That’s why the Liberal Democrats got a blue bin for every suitable home in Bury.
That’s why Liberal Democrats are reversing Conservative cuts to parks.
And that’s why tonight we propose a massive increase in road funding across the borough.
Our roads have been left to crumble for years.
This past winter, the cold snap tested them beyond their limits, and the holes and cracks remain to show it.
There’s one in my ward so deep that I don’t know whether to call for the highways department or the archaeologists..
The staff have done what they can, but still too often cars are damaged and people are injured by roads and pavements in disrepair.
We all have to answer to residents who ask, quite rightly, why this Council is failing in its duty to keep the roads and pavements in a good condition.
Whoever’s to blame, we need to do something.
That is why Liberal Democrats are proposing to double the amount each Local Area Partnership has to spend on road maintenance.
It is a commitment from us to change where money is spent so that it is directed where it’s needed most.
The Tories’ £100,000 is not enough.
We can’t allow another harsh winter to further wreck our roads.
Failure to support this investment will mean just that.
Mr Mayor, this party believes in true partnership working.It is only when we work together that we will achieve all that we can for Bury.
A few weeks ago the Liberal Democrats raised the issue of Police cuts, and whilst we disagreed on some things, one thing united us all – a desire for more Police for Bury to keep our streets and our people safe.
Tonight we propose a partnership with Greater Manchester Police, using money from the Priority Investment Reserve for an additional Police Community Support Officer in each township in this borough.
Every community in Bury will have a dedicated officer to work with the local police team, specifically focussed on council and LAP priorities which will make this borough safer.
We all agreed that we want more Police.When we said it, we were willing to pay for it.
We know what our priorities are, and we’re willing to fund them.
Mr Mayor, this is the third year I have proposed a budget amendment to this Council.
Each time before it has been rejected, and we’ve suffered from cutbacks and higher taxes as a result.
Tonight I’ll try again.
We propose a sensible Council Tax, and investment where it’s needed.
A budget for a greener, safer Bury which protects services now and looks to the future as well.
Better roads, greener energy and safer streets, with hundreds of thousands left over for the wider pressures we realise are, of course, important too, like domestic violence, Adult Care Services and EDS.
It is realistic yet refreshing, prudent yet innovative.
This is my town Mr Mayor, and I firmly believe that our amendment will make Bury a better place.
I am proud to propose it.”
Rick