LABOUR'S ALTERNATE BUDGET FOR CAMBRIDGE WOULD DELIVER MORE SERVICES AND CUT COUNCIL TAX
7 February 2007
City Labour Councillors have published their alternative 2007 budget for Cambridge, proposing £300,000 in extra services for local residents and cutting the proposed Lib Dem 4.5% Council Tax increase down to 4%, to the same as level as the last two years.
Labour's plans contradict Lib Dem claims that a standstill budget is the city's only choice this year and would reverse a raft of LibDem cuts including less youth clubs, and make the city safer and fairer for the over 60s and disabled, cut weekend congestion on the most gridlocked roads, increase recycling and clean up dirty residential streets.
Labour Leader Coun Lewis Herbert said 'Lib Dem 2007 plans for Cambridge are starved of ambition at exactly the time when stresses on the city and on services for both young and old demand action. What is even worse is that the city is levying the highest council tax increase for years with a budget that is also stuffed with hidden service cuts.
'The Lib Dems say they don't like the Council Tax but then raise it by 4.5%, much more than they need to, causing an unnecessary extra burden on older people and other council tax payers. Despite core city spending of over £60 million in 2007, their budget is an act of laziness that totally fails to redirect scarce resources to critical city problems.'
'The only significant areas where the LibDems have funded new spending have been from two areas of extra income, car parks and a further massive increase in the already excessive cremation charges.'
Labour's alternative budget for Cambridge will be tabled this Friday at the Council's Scrutiny Committee and debated at the full council meeting on 22 February.
Deputy Leader Coun Ben Bradnack said: 'If Labour was running the council, the council tax increase would be 4% not 4.5%. Like Gordon Brown nationally, Labour's local budget shows how prudence and increased services can be combined, which will be further assisted when the Labour Government provides promised additional funding for the Cambridge Growth agenda and the delivery of badly needed affordable housing.'