Lack of empathy from Tories over WBC budget

FOLLOWING the poor running of the West Berkshire Council budget meeting on March 2, residents were denied the chance to hear our people, culture and leisure amendments.

These amendments would have supported key local community groups, young people and those who rely on adult social care, but were rejected without thought or discussion by the Conservative administration. Many families contribute towards relative’s adult social care (ASC) fees and many have been affected by the pandemic and economic downturn. Because of this impact, redundancy, limited furlough, reduced hours and limited overtime opportunities, many families are concerned about their future income. Therefore we proposed to freeze personal ASC fees at their 2020/21 level, at the moderate cost of £4,000, to avoid putting additional financial pressure, and associated stress, on families.

With the culture and leisure amendments below, the total revenue cost of four of them amounted to less than 0.1 per cent of the overall revenue budget, and with the inclusion of full support of the Council for the library service, all six amendments would have accounted for just 0.2 per cent of overall revenue, resulting in more residents benefitting rather than money sitting in reserves.

£10,000 for council tax relief for 18- to 21year-old care leavers in West Berkshire.

£30,000 to create a loan scheme for musical instrument loan for all Year 3 pupils in West Berkshire.

£20,000 for a Community Support Fund for volunteer, amateur and

BAME groups across West Berkshire to support initiatives and projects for arts and culture sector.

£100,000 to allow libraries in West Berkshire to provide all the services without town and parish councils having to provide top up funding.

£20,000 to support the Corn Exchange Learning Centre education programme for their children’s and adults’ learning programme to help people across West Berkshire overcome the isolation of the Covid lockdowns of the last year, and help support the people of West Berkshire to participate in art learning programmes provided by the Corn Exchange Learning Centre, at the same time as supporting the Learning Centre as well.

£50,000 to allow Berkshire Youth to continue with providing detached youth work in West Berkshire secondary schools.

Funding for all of these amendments would have come from the council’s revenue underspend of £4m and reserves, and not required an increase in council tax. By not even listening to them, and just rejecting them out of hand, indicates the lack of empathy of the Conservative administration at WBC.

ALAN MACRO AND ERIK PATTENDEN

West Berkshire Liberal Democrats