Savage Conservative Cuts to Public Services (Surrey Heath Liberal Democrats

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Savage Conservative Cuts to Public Services

January 26, 2006 11:24 AM

Is this "Putting People First"?

Liberal Democrats have opposed Conservative plans to slash services provided to Surrey residents.

The Conservative plans were revealed in a report prepared by consultants for the Business Delivery Review commissioned by the Conservative administration to find £50million of savings in County Council expenditure.

Councillor Hazel Watson, Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Surrey County Council said: "This Review was supposed to identify savings without cutting frontline services. Unfortunately it has failed. The proposals include closing 15 youth centres and 6 libraries as well as cutting bus services. On top of this, the proposals drastically reduce the number of highways staff that is likely to worsen the ability of highways to deal with problems promptly."

Councillor David Whitcroft, Leader of the Liberal Democrats at Surrey Heath Borough Council supported the Liberal Democrat approach at County Hall. He said "The proposals do the opposite of what Surrey residents have requested. Residents want to protect local libraries, want more rather than less safe places for young people to meet and want the condition of the roads and footways to be improved. Surrey residents are already justified in being dissatisfied with Surrey's inadequate bus services."

"The Review has not tackled the council's high agency costs. The council should be implementing recruitment and retention policies including key worker housing policies rather than paying agency staff double to do the same job."

Councillor Duncan Clark, Deputy Group Leader the Liberal Democrats at Surrey Heath Borough Council commented "The Review does little to improve the effectiveness and value for money of the Council's major contracts, which is a disappointment. Also there is nothing to reduce energy costs by improving the energy efficiency of the Council's buildings. Energy costs are expected to rise by 40% in the coming year that will increase our costs by another £2m. Furthermore, many of the timescales are unrealistic and unachievable. Therefore I believe that the level of savings proposed is unachievable in the next financial year. Also, many of the figures are only estimates of savings because they require further work to quantify them."

Surrey Heath Liberal Democrats believe that the scale of change proposed, including the drastic changes to the Council's structure and staffing organisation, is too great for the organisation to cope with in one go without adversely affecting services. Liberal Democrats believe that services are already suffering as a result.