Last month, my colleagues and I began scrutinising Southwark Council’s proposed budget for the next financial year. Just like the last budget, the cuts and financial constraints it contained lay bare the dire situation facing councils after years of devastating Conservative cuts, writes Victor Chamberlain…
There are deeply concerning reductions to social care, libraries and the education department. The services people all over Southwark rely on every day are under threat. And the impacts will be felt most acutely by the most vulnerable. The only way we can protect them is with prudent savings to internal spending and ambitious income generating policies.
Unfortunately, our Labour Council seem unable to grasp the situation they are faced with. Not only does their budget fail to do enough to protect key services, they have also announced that they will be hiring a new Communications Director – at a cost of £150k a year to the council tax payers of Southwark.
As I looked through budget reports last week, analysing each cut for its potential impact, I could not stop thinking about the juxtaposition with Labour’s expensive, politically-motivated and frankly insulting decision to add to their leadership team.
This new Director of Communications will only serve as an expensive spin doctor, paid to tell residents that everything is fine whilst failing to fund the services they really need.
Labour have proudly and repeatedly claimed to have spoken to 2,000 people for their ‘Southwark 2030’ strategy. I challenge them to show me how many of those 2,000 people said that what Southwark needed was a new strategic director.
We know full well what those 2,000 people said. They want good housing, safe neighbourhoods, clean streets and well maintained parks. Essentially, the people of Southwark want their council to get the basics right.
Labour have opted instead to pay someone £150k to parrot political lines as they respond to a growing number of crises and scandals.
This decision shows Labour’s warped attitude to public finances, quick to cut vital services but equally quick to splash out on their endless politically-motivated strategies.
The Southwark Liberal Democrats will be proposing an alternative budget that puts people first. A budget that protects the services that people rely on by slashing needless political spending and implementing ambitious income generating policies.
We will also be demanding that Labour reverse their astoundingly tone-deaf decision to recruit a £150k spin doctor, investing that money instead in the areas they were told to by the people of Southwark.