Waverley Budget to Hit Residents Hard

10.06.53am GMT Thu 21st Feb 2008

Cllr John Savage, Cllr Celia Savage, Sue Doughty and Cllr Ken Reed inspect the Waverley budget.

Waverley Borough Liberal Democrat Group leader Cllr Ken Reed called for the Conservatives to do more to save money after they announced a budget that will hit Waverley residents and council tenants hard.

Car parking charges in town centre car parks are set to increase by 43% for two hours and 50% for three hours parking. Meanwhile, the Conservatives by increasing Council Tax by 4.4% have broken an election promise to keep increases at or below inflation.

The Conservatives success in overturning the Lib Dem proposals to reduce the number of Directors from five to four has backfired on them now they are in control, and the Waverley taxpayer will be picking up the bill. Meanwhile, spending on communications at Waverley is some £140,000 higher than in neighbouring Mole Valley.

Increasing the number of Council Planning Committees and making changes to refuse and recycling collections will also cost the taxpayer without any measurable improvements to any of those services.

Voluntary organisations such as Help the Aged and the Citizens' Advice Bureau will suffer however, facing below-inflation grant increases.

Council tenants are also facing an above inflation increase in their rents.

Cllr Ken Reed said, "This Administration's budget falls woefully short of the promises made by the Conservatives at last May's elections.

"From the negative changes to Waste and Recycling to significant increases in car park charges, council tax and rents this Conservative Administration is failing the people of Waverley."

Cllr Ken Reed has challenged Conservative waste

You can view the full text of Cllr Ken Reed's speech in the Council chamber below:

Mr Mayor, there is no doubt that Waverley will be facing severe financial pressure over the coming years but it would seem that this Conservative Administrations' budget rhetoric, like their 2007 local election promises, enshrined in their election strap line "Fresh Start for Waverley", are nothing more than an empty shell of warm words and little substance. The Leader's Budget Speech demonstrates that this Administration's only solution to Waverley's woes is to blame everyone else but themselves for higher charges.

Let me first expose a few of the Myths put forward by this Administration

Although this Administration proclaims otherwise, it is not true that the previous Lib Dem Administration raided Waverley's reserves. During the period from April 2003 to April 2007 Waverley's General Fund Balances and Reserves increased by £3.2 million to over £9 million in total. That was an improvement in those Balances and Reserves of 55%. Neither is it true that the Lib Dems would have raided reserves during this current 2007/08 year. The November Budget Monitoring Report shows that little if any of the £600,000 budgeted will actually be required - as budgeted. Hence the Leader's assertions that this contributes to the above inflation council tax increase proposed by this Administration for 2008/09, is well wide of the mark.

Since they were elected to power last May, this Conservative Administration have decided to spend money on 'unbudgeted items' that will result in depleted reserves this year. Sadly for Waverley's council taxpayers this Administration is more interested in budget forecasts, bolstered by high council tax rises and higher charges, than actual financial prudence. Some Fresh Start!

The Leader has been very critical of the low grant settlement for Waverley but has made no reference to those local Conservative MP's who recently sat on the fence and abstained when the vote on this years settlement was taken in the House of Commons. Although the Government grant to Waverley is low it was not unexpected, and it is unacceptable for this Conservative Administration to make bad decisions that just exacerbate the situation. In 2006 the previous Lib Dem Administration had been planning to address what had already been identified as an ongoing issue for the Council. One of the key elements of the 2006 plan to address the pressure on Waverley's budget was Senior Management Restructuring, and the starting point for this was the reduction in the number of Directors at Waverley from five to four.

Mr Mayor, before I continue I should like to make clear that what I have to say now is in no way a criticism of our current Chief Executive, Mrs Orton.

Although the current Administration will protest otherwise it is clear that had the appointment to Chief Executive been made internally, as originally proposed by the Lib Dems, an additional cost saving of over £100,000 would already be embedded in the Council's Budget. It is also reasonable to expect that the £122,000 savings of the latest senior management restructuring could have been brought in up to six months earlier. Sadly for our residents, during their first nine months in control, this Administration has made things worse by committing the council to higher spending for no benefit to our residents.

The decision to increase the number of planning committees and the changes to Waverley's "same-day" refuse and recycling collections have already added around £110,000 to next years expenditure, and even more for future years. These, together with the cost of five rather than four directors, mean that Waverley's council taxpayers are already committed to pay more than £210,000 in extra council tax next year. Or, put another way, next years council tax rise from Waverley could have been more than 21/2% lower than that being proposed.

Having wasted council taxpayers money on unnecessary expenditure, this Conservative Administration has then only awarded key local voluntary organisations a less than inflation increase in their grant funding. As a result, these organisations, including Age Concern and Citizens Advice, will be struggling to maintain the crucial services needed by vulnerable people in our communities.

In focussing on the absolute monetary sums being added to council tax bills, the Leader of the Council demonstrates a total disregard of the fact that increases in resident's household budgets are made up of many such small sums of money. Obviously Conservative election promises to keep Waverley's council tax increases at or below inflation were worthless. Some Fresh Start!

Mr Mayor, when in opposition, the Conservatives were severely critical of the previous Lib Dem Administration's increases to car parking charges. In their election literature the Conservatives complained that during the Lib Dems four years in office, some parking charges went up by 40%. Even though official figures show that actual car park income increased by 30% under the Lib Dems, the latest complaint from this Conservative Administration is that we didn't increase car-parking charges enough!

A close look at the budget papers reveals that Lib Dem increases in parking charges over four years do not come anywhere close to the staggering increases being proposed in their first year by this Administration. In Waverley's central "shoppers" car parks this Conservative Administration is putting up parking charges by 43% for two hours and by 50% for three hours parking. These increases will affect shoppers and businesses in Cranleigh, Farnham, Godalming and Haslemere. Some Fresh Start!

In their election literature the Conservatives also promised "real leadership on climate change". So what does next years budget offer on this front? Well, it appears to be very little.

During the last few months the Leader and Portfolio Holder for the Environment have claimed credit for increased collections from cardboard bring sites, but the reality is that negotiations for this improved service were authorised and started by the previous Lib Dem Executive. The Administration have made claims that recycling has hit new heights, but the reality is that published recycling figures for the first six months of this Administration show no improvement on those achieved during the last six months of the Lib Dem Administration.

But what does the 2008/09 budget hold in store for improvements to recycling in Waverley?

Those of you who have looked closely at your papers will see that just 2% has been added to the revenue budget to cover the already implemented changes to cardboard collection at bring sites. So what has happened to the promised collections of a wider range of recyclables - particularly plastic food containers? What has happened to the promised extension of "weekend-only" bring sites, particularly for green waste and cardboard, and what about kerbside collection of cardboard? Worst of all, what has happened to the separate weekly collection of food and kitchen waste? You know the stuff that Conservative election literature said, "makes our bins smell and results in rats and maggot infestations".

The kitchen waste collection trials in three neighbouring boroughs will be completed by the 31st of March this year, but this Administration has done nothing to anticipate the introduction of this service in Waverley. The Administration hides behind the fact that the disposal authority (SCC) has no facilities to compost food waste, but ignores the demands from householders across the borough to collect food waste weekly. In a full year the Lib Dems estimate that the cost of a kitchen waste collection service could be provided for around £750,000 per year so we believe that the Administration should be budgeting a sum of £250,000 to commence this service in late 2008. If the Lib Dems had been in charge at Waverley since last May's elections, rather than waste £111,000 annually on "same day" collections, a weekly kitchen waste collection would have been in place by the coming Summer of 2008. Now this really would have been a Fresh Start!

The Conservatives also promised to review the cost of the kerbside garden waste collection service and increase uptake, but this too seems to be absent from any budget proposals. The charge for this service is to remain unchanged from the time that the service was introduced. As a result the 57,000 plus households that don't use the kerbside garden waste service will, next year, be subsidizing those that do to the tune of over £30,000. The Lib Dems would propose increasing the standard charge for the garden waste collection service by £10 a year to remove this unfair council tax funded subsidy.

The private car accounts for around 17% of carbon dioxide emissions in Surrey, but this Administration has done nothing to encourage local motorists towards greener cars. Unless pricing them out of using Waverley's car parks with the swingeing 50% increase in parking charges has some perverse logic. Were the Lib Dems still running Waverley we would be offering an hours free parking for low emission vehicles at Waverley's car parks, i.e. those emitting less than 121 gms/km of CO2.

The Conservative manifesto also promised to get council tax and spending under control, but seems to be failing on both fronts. In addition to the savings and expenditure already mentioned so far in this response, the Lib Dems believe that the Administration should be reducing the amount being spent on communications. One has to ask, "Why is Waverley spending £140,000 more on communications than neighbouring Mole Valley". I doubt that this question will be answered as Waverley's communications seem to be increasingly used for political purposes by the current Administration. However, the Lib Dems believe that £30,000 could be cut immediately from the budget by reducing the number of issues of Waverley's magazine "Making Waves" from four to two per year. Reducing the number of jobs in the Communications Department by one Full Time Equivalent could also save a further £30,000.

The Leaders last Executive statement on one small, and he believes insignificant, item typifies the mindset of this Administration on spending council taxpayers money. At that meeting on the 5th February Cllr Gates said, "He was proud of this Conservative Administration's courage to increase (by 20%) the amount being spent on providing refreshments (i.e. sandwiches) to Members". (Perhaps we should compare this to the 3% increase in Waverley's grant for Age Concern and Citizens Advice.) Cllr Gates argued that this (sandwich premium) could be justified because of the number of new working Conservative councillors who had to attend lunchtime or evening meetings where they came straight from work. At £74 per year for each of the 57 councillors, my own observation is that there is generally an overprovision of food on these occasions that could quite easily be reduced by 20%.

Since taking control in May 2007 this Conservative Administration seems to have been sitting on their collective hands when it comes to maximising returns on the Councils assets. For example, we have known since 2006 that Surrey County Council will not be pursuing plans for a new library at Weyhill Car Park, Haslemere, so since then Waverley has been free to develop this site for pay-and-display parking. But rather than forging ahead with spending the £50,000 budgeted for this year on planning for the resurfacing of the car park as a priority, and hence improve parking for the benefit of local businesses and shoppers, this Conservative Administration has ignored it.

No, this Administration would far rather focus its attention on wasting £157,000 of council taxpayers money on building another committee room under the cloak of a perceived need to improve disability access. The main Council Chamber and Mayors Parlour are already DDA compliant so spending money in this way, that could be better used for the wider Waverley community, shows that this Conservative Administration has lost touch with reality. What about re-allocating this money to Godalming Leisure facilities? Some Fresh Start!

Mr Mayor, I'm sure that Councillors will have noticed that the cost of computer hardware continues to fall dramatically every year. Unfortunately at their meeting on 5th February the Executive totally ignored the request of the Corporate Overview & Scrutiny Committee that the Executive review the "constant" £85,000 per year capital budget for desktop/server upgrades. Sadly the O&S observation was not even debated by the Executive.

There is little doubt that the penal negative housing subsidy demanded by Government rules prevents this Council from providing the service to which our tenants are entitled. As the Housing Portfolio Holder in the last Lib Dem administration, I am pleased to note that this Administration has followed the practice of lobbying Government, about this injustice, as all previous administrations have done. The latest Government Officer's response to the Leader does suggest however that there is still some way to go before, if at all, any changes occur. The Leader has outlined the details of the problems facing the Council's housing service, but in true Conservative style ignores the problems that an above inflation increase in rents will have on our tenants.

At the Budget Council Meeting last year Cllr Mrs Frost put forward an amendment to reduce to 2.7% the 3.9% RPI increase in rents being proposed by the Lib Dem Administration. She argued that, unlike Waverley's council tax, rents were a major portion of our tenants' disposable income.

What a difference a year makes - Under this new Conservative Administration, with Cllr Mrs Frost as Deputy Leader and Housing Portfolio Holder, rents are to be increased by more than RPI inflation. As it would make very little difference to the state of the Housing Revenue Account, could I invite Cllr Mrs Frost to stick to her principles and propose an amendment to reduce the rent increase from 4.4% to the current RPI inflation rate of 4.1%?

Mr Mayor had the previous Lib Dem Administration's plan to recruit the new Chief Executive from within been followed, and had the proposals I have outlined been implemented, at least £300,000 could be cut from this Conservative Administration's budget. With these savings, a Lib Dem Administration would be implementing a separate collection of food waste at a cost of circa £250,000 in 2008/09. Voluntary organisation's grants would be increased by RPI, free parking for low emission vehicles would be introduced and the Lib Dems would honour their commitment to keep any council tax rise to no more than (RPI) inflation. Limiting council tax increases to inflation was also a promise made by the Conservatives in their election literature last May, but they appear to have no intention of keeping that particular promise either.

Mr Mayor, this Administration's budget falls woefully short of the promises made by the Conservatives at last May's elections and will be a disappointment to many of those who mistakenly put their trust in them. From the negative changes to Waste and Recycling to significant increases in car park charges, council tax and rents this Conservative Administration is failing the people of Waverley.

Thank you.