30 January (Part 1) - Across the board price increases
Too much of Tuesday was spent on the phone trying to get my broadband
connection fixed and the Cabinet meeting report was necessarily short but now
that the problem is out of my hands I can return to checking out the recording to remind myself who said what.
Apart from myself, the
BAG contingent and regular attendee John Watson, there was
a group of about eight sitting behind them. I was led to believe they were
prospective Labour party candidates for the 2014 election.
Chairman Teresa O’Neill opened the meeting without any formalities at all. No
welcome for the members of the public - not surprising I suppose, not a single
one of them is going to vote Tory in May - and no warnings about who could take
photos from where. Maybe she had noticed that no one had brought a camera. The
sound system was on its best behaviour and everyone could be heard perfectly.
That does not happen very often.
The leader began by saying that two thirds of the consultation respondents were in
favour of the council’s proposals and only 10% were against. The actual results
are shown below so that you can see if you can replicate her arithmetic.
At a quick glance it seems to me that the sum of the first two columns rarely
reaches two thirds, I’ll have to create a spreadsheet to see where I am going wrong. Ms. O’Neill
acknowledged the public’s disagreement with
the ‘Aunt Sally’ plan to close the Archive Centre.
The Director of Finance, Mr. Ellsmore, said that one of the ways in which Bexley’s £40 million
black hole was to be filled would be an across the board 3% increase in fees and
charges. The charges document shows the real increases vary between nothing
and 20% (Survey Fees), 25% (Commercial Waste charges) and even 50% (Clinical
Waste). Lots of the smaller increases are above 3% and some less. Inflation currently stands at
2%. “Government funding has reduced by just over 40% since 2010” the DoF added.
The introduction of free school meals is to be fully funded by government
and they will pay Bexley £2.30 per meal while Bexley pays its contractor only £2.25. Mayor
Johnson is proposing to cut his precept by 1·5% leading to a small reduction in
council tax if Bexley freezes theirs as expected.
Councillor Campbell waffled on somewhat (we learned nothing new) about the need
for the increases in fees and said that unlike the Labour Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls, he
did not believe that the answer to everything was a tax rise. I sometimes worry that I
often agree with our Colin. The first reaction should never be more tax but after four
years of savage cuts a case might be made for it.
Colin Campbell went on to say that by 2018 “this authority will have saved £100
million”. He didn’t say the year from which he started counting, I suppose it
must be 2006 because I’ve only heard him claim £35 million for the past four
years and £40 million for the next, up until now. Perhaps he has become demob. happy.
“We are delivering”, he said, but indicated that mistakes had been made in
Children’s Services and “they are of our own making”.
Councillor Don Massey reiterated his present position that he is hopeful of
saving the local archive centre. Staffing levels will be reduced.
Councillor Katie Perrior said she was “investing the council’s money in
families, helping them when they are vulnerable and showing signs that could
escalate to children going into care which doesn’t have the best outcome. It is
much better for children to stay with their own families”. I’ve no idea what
this actually entails as all Ms. Perrior told us was that it involves “key
workers” and the “overall aim was to reduce referrals to children’s social
care”. The theory sounded good, no one wants Bexley’s former neglectfulness leading to any
more murders.
And so the shortest Cabinet meeting in recent memory drew to a close. £40
million saved in a shade under 20 minutes. They make it sound so easy but 20
minutes also makes it sound as if it has not been fully thought through.