Arguing won’t solve cash woes

IT’S perhaps a sign of how desperate the funding situation has become at our councils that debate over council tax now is little more than a row over whose cuts would be worse.

Lancashire County Council faces a funding gap of £122m within a few years as a result of cuts to government grants.

To help bridge at least some of that, LCC proposes putting up council tax by almost 6 per cent.

At the meeting to discuss the budget, opposition Labour leader Azhar Ali pointed out a 6pc rise would hurt the people of Lancashire, being twice the rate of inflation.

However, Rossendale county councillor David Foxcroft didn’t like a suggestion that the county council was making ‘life-changing cuts.’

He told Labour: “I’d class a life-changing cut as closing a local library for a resident and actually we corrected that life-changing cut for you.”

The sad reality is all cuts are life-changing. LCC is cutting a further £11m on top of the £81m delivered so far. Disabled bus fares are doubling in price, funding for 17 police community support officers cut, and funding to stop young offenders becoming repeat offenders slashed. These are all life-changing cuts for people too. It’s just that some cuts are more visible than others.

County council leader Geoff Driver warned that without the cuts, LCC faces becoming another Northamptonshire County Council - which can’t actually set a budget because it is so broke. Councillors shouldn’t be fighting over who makes the worst cuts - they should be uniting to fight for a better deal for the county council.