Labour claim 18% increase means more service cuts
The Conservative administration in Hammersmith has been blasted for increasing Councillors allowances whilst embarking on a major cost-cutting programme which the opposition claim is reducing spending on front line services.
Conservative councillors used their majority at a recent Council Meeting to vote through a series of cuts which amounted to £34 million. According to the local Labour party, the cuts include a reduction of £1.4 million for the elderly and sick to get home help, taking £540,000 from the children's, play and youth services, cutting £30,000 of storage facilities for homeless families to keep their belongings and axing £915,000 from the street cleaning service.
The Councillors pay rise of 18% adds an extra £68,494.00 to the budget. Meanwhile, the £200.75 increase in meals-on-wheels charges will save the Council £50,000.00 this year and Council staff are being told that their salary rises for the same period will be capped at 2.5%.
Ruby Belshaw (81) a local resident in Fulham Reach ward and Chair of the Field Road Tenants' and Residents' Association said "The Council's stopped the CCTV programme going in on our estate since the Conservatives took control and there's drug dealing and all sorts of stuff going on here. My neighbour's had his meals-on-wheels prices put up by £200 and the dial-a-ride service for pensioners has been messed around with. I've tried contacting my local Conservative ward councillors and they just don't want to know. Then I find out that these people have decided to pay themselves an extra 18% in wages. It's a disgrace. They just don't care how the majority of ordinary people live."
Labour Cllr. Stephen Cowan said "They have failed to back our plan on 24/7 Police Task Squads for the five wards with the highest crime, introduced cuts that will make life much harder for many local people and are planning to close up to three local schools. I don't think this is what many members the public thought they'd be getting from this newly elected Tory administration".
Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh, Hammersmith & Fulham Council leader, said, “We were elected to cut council tax bills and deliver better front line services and this is what our first budget does. While other councils are piling more tax on their residents we are reversing that trend and turning back the clock so that our council tax is now at 2004 levels. That's got to be great news for everyone, particularly for our pensioners and those on low incomes. This is the first budget since the May 2006 election and we are combining lower tax with more cash for things that matter to residents. The council is pumping in £1.5million over two years to pay for round the clock beat policing in our town centres as well as spending more on schools and providing free homecare for our most vulnerable residents.”
He denied front line services were being cut saying that a reduction in waste and bureaucracy had allowed Hammersmith and Fulham to make a cut in the tax bill when most of the rest of the country were seeing a rise. The Council is one of only two in the country to cut tax this year.
March 9, 2007