WARRINGTON South MP David Mowat has accused Labour members of the borough council of plotting a hike in Council Tax should they take control of the authority after the May elections.
The Conservative MP said: “Labour are guilty of rank hypocrisy. They criticised the supposed “secrecy” of the council’s budget, yet produced £2.5 million of spending commitments at a council meeting with no consultation whatsoever.
“They criticised the effect it would have on elderly residents, yet refused to commit to any extra spending. In short, 
they would change less than two per cent of the total budget. Far from opposing cuts, they are implicitly endorsing them.”
Mr Mowat (pictured) was speaking after Monday’s budget meeting of the council when a £154.822 million budget was approved – requiring an unchanged Band D council tax of £1,136.64
He said: “What worries me most is that Labour are basing £2.5 million of extra spending on the money they claim they will find down the back of a sofa.
“Since they can’t identify a single spending cut that they would make, if this money doesn’t materialise, Labour would have to put up Council Tax and hit pensioners and families struggling on low and fixed incomes. The last thing Warrington needs is more Council Tax.”
Mr Mowat praised the controlling Lib Dem/Conservative group on the council for putting the budget together in a thoughtful and considered way.
He also praised the unions for being prepared to work constructively with council officers to minimise job losses.
He said: “Up and down the country, we have sadly seen councils deliberately slashing front line services and targeting vulnerable people in order to make a political point.
“That’s not the Warrington way of doing things. Labour’s appalling mismanagement of the public finances left the council with no option but to make significant savings, but rather than whining, they have rolled up their sleeves and got on with the job.
“They have consulted more than ever before to find out what people in Warrington actually want; what services they value most highly and where they think savings can be made.
“Sadly, up to 180 people could be made redundant and that is an individual tragedy for each of those families, but it could have been much, much worse. Just up the road, Manchester Council is cutting more than one in six of its staff.
“It’s a tribute to the positive and constructive way union officials and the council co-operate together that we have not seen such savage reductions in Warrington. Given that nearly 200 people have expressed an interest in voluntary redundancy, hopefully there will hardly any compulsory redundancies.”
Mr Mowat said there was some good news in the budget too – a freeze in Council Tax, support for first-time home buyers and voluntary sector cuts of only £18,000 out of “millions.”
Labour plotting tax rise – claims MP
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Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
36 Comments
So David can’t substantiate the headline!!
My reading of the article, it seems that he has, “He said: “What worries me most is that Labour are basing £2.5 million of extra spending on the money they claim they will find down the back of a sofa.
“Since they can’t identify a single spending cut that they would make, if this money doesn’t materialise, Labour would have to put up Council Tax and hit pensioners and families struggling on low and fixed incomes.” All I can say is that Labour must have a very big sofa, all I find down the back of mine are 2ps and some old biscuit crumbs.
I don’t remember David Mowat being at the meeting, but clearly the Tories weren’t listening. A Labour administration would examine the business case for the Council’s “wishlist” spending and redirect money where it was sensible to do so. I am sure that the public would rather see £2.5m spent on services that matter to them, rather than £10m on a solar farm!
Labour say that they have not been included in the budget consultation and the lack of transparency. So how transparent was your Government when they sent young men and women to their death in Iraq when Tony Blair used his smokescreen of weapons of mass distruction??????
Who has been consulted on this figures that Labour has plucked from the heavens???? Typical Labour ways – you call everyone and fail to act. I am glad that you have been exposed by the Lib Dem Councillors who don’t have self interest at heart unlike some of the Labour Councillors. ANYONE FOR A PICTURE???? I will I will it’s me Mike!!!!!!!! Warrington they damaged us before local they almost killed the country – don’t let them do it again
Geoff – You know as well as I do if you don’t produce an alternative budget then you have nothing to offer. For 13 years the Labour Government played with figures and look what has happened to the entire country. Warrington people want people who act responsible, who work for them but have Warrington at the centre of everything. All your Group did on Monday was treat the town with contempt – you have plucked numbers out of the air and ran with headlines, that you think will attract people. So once again I ask Where is the Labour Groups Alternative budget????? WARRINGTON START ASKING THEM THE SAME QUESTION and add in Why didn’t you put a budget forward at such an important time for Warrington????
But isn’t the Solar Farm capital spend ( and I agree it does need carefully looking at, and I’m sure it will be – given the price of food maybe we need a community farm instead), but the £2.5 million Labour proposals are revenue spend, two very different funding streams.
I could hear what was being said in the town hall chamber where the meeting was being held and the Labour chap clearly said the £2.5million spend proposed by the Labour Party was coming from the Capital budget…only the funding for the 40 new apprenticeships is coming out of the Revenue budget…for which he said “surely we can find £160k from a revenue budget of £150million”. As for consultation, it was brought out at the meeting that the LibDem-tory council have only just (i.e. on Friday) released the job losses figures…when all other councils have been telling for weeks just what their plans are…no one could tell those at the meeting just what jobs are going…where’s the openness and transparency in that? If the consultation was so good why were there so many young people angry that they had not been listened to and asking why they are losing so many careers advisers…speaking of young people, I am really surprised that nothing has been reported of the disgraceful haranguing of the 17 year old student who asked a question to LibDems…surely the LibDem councillors can take a bit of passionate but constructive criticism…but then again, maybe not. We all have our motivations for criticising political parties but it for the reasons above and the vicious attack by the LibDems on that young student, who was I am told also a member of the Youth Parliament, that the LibDems no longer have my support.
Lookingfromafar… where did you find out about the Solar Farm?… I must have missed that at the Council meeting. Are the LibDems really looking to build a £10million solar farm in sunny warrington…where the emissions from the cooling towers at Fiddlers Ferry power station means we hardly see any blue sky in Penketh, let alone sun shine!
We very much care for the people of Warrington and want to do the best for them.
If you had been present to chair the Budget Scrutiny meeting you would have heard first hand our displeasure at the lack of detail. The Chief Finance Officer being absent from the same meeting didn’t help matters either but at least we did unravel a few things but not all.
It is difficult enough to produce a budget but an alternative one without the detail of the one put before the Full Council on Monday is even more difficult.
Whether you support his views or not he made a brilliant, composed and passionate plea. Mr Mayor did make sure that he got his point of view across even when he was overstepping the line a bit. I wish that I had been able to deliver a speech half as well as he did under pressure like that when I was his age. Well done Tom.
It was a budget line with no detail.
Things are always difficult when you don’t ask questions – your Group should have been proactive there. Also, Yes I was unable to Chair the meeting due work committments. I’m not sure if you know this, but when you work within the public sector as I do, you respond to the needs of others and sadly I couldn’t be there to Chair the debate because of work. It was good to see this year that all Labour members attended, unlike last year smeeting when only two appeared but then left before 8pm. I think a match was on again!
We can play ping pong all day Geoff but like I said on monday evening – Labour don’t get it – it’s all about the people of Warrington it’s about making ever penny count.
I have heard two views on the speech by the 17-year-old student. One, which I would like to believe, is that through inexperience he overstepped the mark. The other, which I am more inclined to believe, is that he had been set up by Labour.
Whichever is correct, he was hardly composed when he called an identifiable person a liar.
As for the jobs – I think its a shame that jobs have to go but lets look at why the figure came out when they did. Liverpool and Manchester Labour run came out with XTHOUSAND to go. They put fear in the minds of the people but more so staff who at the end of the day deliver the services.
Now they are revisiting their figures because its not that many so how many people have they impacted. Well Done on the delay because to only experience 180 posts to go shows to me a Warrington tax payer that you have looked deep and hard and tried to avoid at all costs fear and upset of staff but you have had a clear focus on the town – I’ll be voting for you locally again because you have safe hands locally.
So did you ask the question at the meeting that you have slagged Kevin Reynolds for not being at? I didn’t know he worked in the public sector – I bet he could tell a tail or two about working under a Labour Government. Surely someone who had an interest for Warrington would focus on this Cllr Settle or were you doing the normal Labour thing of having Bent and Vobe giving you questions??? Why didn’t you ask the question Cllr Settle and also answer me a tax payer of Warrington why didn’t you and your Group but an alternative budget forward – Hey Cllr Settle did you send any postcards in for the consultation?
A general point Mr Settle, why did you and your colleagues abstain, I am sure your constituents would like to know? Wouldn’t a vote against been less wimpish?
Bit naive that comment Pay my way.
They have been getting rid of people for at least the last three years and shuffling departments so much that there is very little experience in any. Perhaps you can look at your 180 again?
Did they abstain again??? Wimpish is far too kind – FAILURE FOR WARRINGTON your no alternative shame on you.
The Council has a legal obligation to submit a Budget this week. The Budget debate at Council should have been in February, but it wasn’t ready. If the Budget had been defeated on Monday, then there would have been no time to fix it and so the opposition had no alternative but to abstain. So you are looking in the wrong place for blame – Paul Campbell left the Budget to the last possible minute.
You could perhaps be a little more informative here Emanon, who was the ‘identifiable’ person? for what reason was he called a liar? was he telling lies?
I thought that I had posted this before I left for work but I must have not entered the key correctly but in answer to your questions. Yes it was me who asked the question about the solar farm and no I did not slag Cllr Reynolds – we have a good working relationship in committee. Both Nick Bent and Helen Jones know me well enough not to give me instructions but we certainly do discuss opinions about issues. I know from working in private industry that offering any sort of budget without detail is fraught with disaster. Yes I did complete at least one postcard plus the online questionnaire and budget balance and I also chaired one of the tables at the business conference in the Parr Hall.
Safe hands? When the Lib/Cons took over Warrington even they commented that the town’s finances were in good order! Since the Lib/Dems have been in control Warrington has gained the reputation of ‘the worst town in Britain’. The inequality gap has widened, Children’s services degenerated to an all time low and behind closed door plans have been hatched to off-load our prized heritage assets. Now in response to the countrywide govt cuts the local Lib/Cons have chosen to cut services to the most vulnerable and to effect job losses which will impact on basic services. Yet they are planning to go full steam ahead with what must be one of the most wasteful town centre regeneration projects of all time! Do we really need TWENTY MILLION POUNDS worth of multi-coloured tin -pot tack buildings in a town centre that already has a glut of empty shop premises? Do we really need to build new, prestigious offices for the council in the town centre, for which they are planning to get the town into debt by borrowing money? How can all this waste be acceptable in a town that can’t even afford to maintain public toilets?
Don’t think that they are planning to build new council offices Sha, just buy the ones that they currently rent. I understand it is called invest to save, bit like buying a home instead of renting I guess.
My God….. no wonder nothing ever gets bloody done in this town. Everyone arguing with everyone else and the party members following the party line and to hell with the people of Warrington. The whole damned bunch of the councillors in this town are a waste of time and are either too settled in their comfy executive, money making roles or too bloody stupid to realise that the majority of people in the town have no respect for them. Grow up, stop bloody arguing and start working together to get us all out of this mess….. oh, and please come knocking on my door prior to the elections; instead of sneaking a leaflet through and then running off…… scared of REAL debate???
I thought that we were discussing the isuues. Anyway send me your details and I’ll make sure that someone calls around to see you if they can’t then I will myself next week my email address is [email protected].
I am glad that persons 16 years and over come before the council I think thats really good to hear.
What is not helpful is how someone seems to have hoodwinked this young chap.
I understand that he was going to ask a question but went into making a speech which I believe is against the council rules. That being the case I think it is right to question a breach of process.
The youth of today don't want special treatment they just want to be treated like everyone else – youth or adult. So why was this person treated any different??? Because it will get the headlines. If this person wants to play the game with the big boys and girls then he like everyone has to play by the rules. I do think he has really undermined his position representing the Youth of Warrington he has let down my 4 children who he represents. But I understand that Labour have guided him on this – they are shameful for what they have done to him. If the process is there then we all have to play by the same rules – at the end of the day he and the youth just want to be equal. but thats what we all want to be treated as equal.
I do not identify the “identifiable” person because I do not wish to repeat the error which the student made, no doubt through inexperience. As to whether he WAS telling lies, I wouldn’t know, but in this context it is irrelevant. So often, in politics, opinions you don’t agree with get described as “lies.”
Shame you never come up with an alternative budget then – so all this consultation yet your Cllr Carey says nothing happened or details were not given – Sorry Cllr Settle I think you are hiding things from the people of the town. Lack of transparency hey!!!!!
what complete rubbish
What an absolutely ridiculous post! Or is it in fact a rather connived one guided by Lib/Con supporters who themselves are seeking the headlines? You claim to be a parent in saying “he has let down my 4 children” If you are in fact a parent it would be you yourself who are letting down your children, by denying them their own voice. This young man is on the youth parliament to give ‘youths’ not kinder garden tots a voice and judging by the comments re his eloquent speech he has done them proud. You however suggest he has “undermined his position representing the youth of Warrington”. Is this not merely a sad attempt by yourself to undermine his position, because he is intelligent, just and full of fervour and in displaying the qualities he has, he has undermined some of the has beens and never have beens in the town hall? This council it seems has very little respect for the voice of young people. The disparaging remarks re the youths demonstrating over the closure of Woolston High were clear enough evidence of that. So it is not surprising that this talented young man, leader of a youth council which it appears they expected to be a gullible body of young people who would be ‘led by the nose’ and passively play their part in one of the councils contrived consultation/ box-ticking exercises, has upset them. Your comment “If this person wants to play the game with the big boys and girls then he like everyone has to play by the rules.” is riddled with typical Lib/Con condescension. It would not matter what age a person were whether 16 or 60yrs, anyone unused to the playground antics of the town hall would not expect the rules of a so called democratic process to be structured in such a way as to enable such endless pontificating without the public being allowed to express a viewpoint. You infer that this young man is being ‘led’ by others, I very much doubt that someone with such a strong and independent character could actually be led by anyone! It would be interesting to know though, who is in fact leading the multiple personalities posting under the name ‘Pay My Way’ Is it yourself? You seem to have decidedly better spelling and grammar capabilities and a distinctly different style of narration than in ‘Pay My Way’ previous posts!
Geoff…….
I will email you later…. I am on a train at the moment. Thak you for you response.
No evidence and no substantiation. And ebsides that, probably a load of codswallop! The lad seems smart enough to be his own master – you weren’t sat on the Lib Dem benches on Monday night were you?
Labour’s legacy
thats because I get fed up of people who are full of self gratification
Lookingfromafar, Executive decisions 20th Sept 2010……”In principle the Council’s future office accomodation needs should be met through the provision of a new purpose built public sector office located within the Bridge street site and fully integrated into the re-development scheme.”
No, Lib/Con ‘Visions’!