It's Time to Sort this Council Out (South East Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats)

South East Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats <info@secambslibdems.org.uk>

It's Time to Sort this Council Out

April 24, 2010 5:44 PM

The Tories have run the District Council for the last four years, plenty of time for residents to judge their record. Sadly, the judgment has to be that they have shown a mixture of blind dogma and incompetence

One bright spot has been the Council's Housing Repair Service. Tenants have given it almost 100% satisfaction ratings and it has stayed within budget. Yet it is set to be the next victim of Tory dogma. They want to put the service out to tender next year, despite the high cost of going through the exercise.

Why haven't the Tories learnt from the Housing Futures fiasco? Over the last four years they have wasted millions of Council tax-payers money chasing misguided dogma.

In 2005 tenants voted nearly 4 to 1 against transferring their homes from Council ownership. Yet the Tories would not accept the decision. They spent £1.4M of your money on a drive to persuade tenants to change their minds. The result? Another clear vote against transfer- 72% said "No" - and £1.4m down the drain.

After wasting so much money on the Housing Futures Campaign, the Tories tried to claw back the money they had wasted by getting rid of the Sheltered Housing wardens.

Your Lib Dem team in Linton, working with elderly tenants, forced the Council to back down, at least for this year. But rents have gone up to cover the cost of the Tories' misguided actions.

And what will happen next year? If the Tories are still in power and try to wield the big axe again, Lib Dems will be at the head of the campaign to stop them.

In the last Focus we reported on another Tory blunder- the Council car park that didn't have planning permission. And now they're at it again!

The Council was all set to save £400,000 by running a joint Benefits and Revenue service with Uttlesford District Council.

At the last minute, the Tories suddenly demanded the system should be changed to their advantage. Not surprisingly, Uttlesford pulled out, leaving South Cambs in the lurch and £400,000 worse off.

In times when public spending is under severe pressure, we simply can't afford all these wasted costs and missed opportunities.

The collapse of the agreement with Uttlesford is just the latest example of the District Council's inability to work with other people. A constant refrain I hear at Parish Council meetings is the failure of the District Council to work with parishes and with local people. I share that frustration.

And like most people, I want to see better co-operation between the District Council and the County Council. As long as we have two separate Councils rather than just one, they need to work much more closely and effectively.