14 March - Full Council budget meeting. (Round 1, the Amendment)
Five Councillors were missing from this meeting, Louie French being occupied these
days in Westminster and not drawing his allowance but three other Tories and the
Independent for Thamesmead East absented themselves too.
The
Leader opened proceedings with a reminder “that the last two years have not
been easy and she was not sure that the reserves would be sufficient to cover
the financial impact of the pandemic”. (In the event, thanks to the cuts, it was.)
She said that the Government’s Fair Funding Review was delayed and with it the
hope for a fairer distribution of grant settlement. “Next year Bexley will
receive £40 million whereas neighbours Greenwich will receive £110 and Southwark will get £152 million. That £70 million difference (with Greenwich) would equate to a near
70% reduction in Bexley’s Council Tax bills.”
The Mayor’s increase of 8·8% to his Council Tax precept and the
announcement of an intention to extend the Ultra Low Emission Zone to Bexley was given the criticism it deserves.
“Housing services are being transformed and moving those in temporary
accommodation to housing associations is good for them and taxpayers. We
continue to invest in the services that matter to our residents”
Cabinet Member David Leaf said the budget “would make Bexley even better
with more than £400 million of additional investment”. He said that the 2·99%
Council Tax increase will mean a lower rate in real terms than in 2006. (This is true!)
“Members opposite have spent the last 16 years talking down our borough,
praying for failure, opposing investment and showing nothing but contempt for
sound financial management. Bexley residents have trusted us since May 2006 and
I am confident will do so again in two months with more Conservative Members.”
Stefano Borella (Labour, Slade Green) put forward an Amendment which was unfortunately not
made available to webcast viewers. It was about housing and School Crossing
Patrols. He wanted BexleyCo to provide up to 50% affordable housing and using
Redrow’s Howbury Section 106 money (£2·93 million total, £1 million
from Howbury) which has been unused for the past eight years
to be spent on the Sidcup Library site. “That was ֧pretty disgraceful”.
The Labour Leader referred to “Tory leaflets claiming to take school safety
seriously while planning to abandon School crossing Patrols. Scandalous.”
Councillor Francis (Labour, Belvedere) added that the
road safety team has been reduced despite the Cabinet Member’s written reply to
Councillor Hinkley stating that Bexley has not cut the road safety team, “the
staff merely left to take other jobs”. The Road Safety Sub-Group will contradict
the Cabinet Member when it reports next week and the Chairman confirms that all
Council funding has been withdrawn. The remaining Lollypop staff remain under threat of redundancy.”
The Leader made it clear that she did not want to consider any part of the amendment
and Cabinet Member Munur said that Labour’s attitude was “scary, absolutely irresponsible
and quite, quite disgusting. Theirs is a knee-jerk reaction.”
Cabinet Member Craske said that the Amendment represented “sheer hypocrisy”.
Labour, he said, is on the record opposing affordable housing for the whole of
the past three years and had failed to mention that it is Sadiq Khan who has
stopped paying for School Crossing Patrols.
Cabinet Member Leaf continued in similar vein and said that Council housing is
not the answer. In Greenwich there are 1,000 Council households with arrears of
over £2,000 each and that is not something that Bexley wants to see. “Labour are
reckless and their Amendment has the stench of hypocrisy. The Redrow S106 money
would not exist if Labour had their way, they opposed the Redrow sale.”
“Labour wants to use funds they have objected to receiving to give to a company
they would not have set up to pay for homes on a site they rejected for housing.”
Councillor Richard Diment (Conservative, Sidcup) said that “Social Housing may seem to be appealing but the
reality is that the concept is neither financially viable nor realistic in the
current culture. Labour’s was a last minute Amendment to a budget that has been
worked on for months and Greenwich (20,000 Council houses) has 31% of its
tenants in rent arrears and following Court action at risk of eviction”.
The Tories unanimously voted against, in Labour’s words, “dealing with the Tory housing crisis and
protecting children going to school”.
The Labour Group subsequently sent out
a Press Release explaining their position.