The Valley needs a single choir of voices to shout up for it
TWO weeks ago, this column argued that the financial dire straits which Rossendale council finds itself in will never be solved for as long as local politicians aren’t prepared to put politics to one side and work for the good of the borough together.
The column focused on Rossendale MP Jake Berry, who has been busy calling out what he felt were poor decisions by the council’s planning department, insisting the problems weren’t due to spending cuts, but the leadership of the Labourrun council.
Mr Berry last week responded with a long letter, published in the Free Press, which covered many areas: More examples of what he considers poor planning decisions, suggesting the council’s financial predicament is as much to do with the Empty Homes Scandal as it is government spending cuts, and promising to buy council leader Alyson Barnes a replica of US President Henry Truman’s office sign which reads: ‘The buck stops here’.
Coun Barnes also referenced the column in her monthly update, published in the Free Press last week.
She insists no services have been cut as a result of having to fund the Empty Homes Scheme after the firm running it collapsed, accused Tories of constantly criticising the estimated £20m of regeneration projects the council has brought in, and rival politicians of overlooking the harm cuts do. I think it’s fair to say the idea of putting party politics to one side for the good of Rossendale hasn’t taken off just yet – but it needs to, because the future looks very grim for our council if something isn’t done to change its funding.
Conservatives, including Mr Berry, have said on more than one occasion that Rossendale council would not be facing a black hole in its finances if the Empty Homes Scandal wasn’t costing the council £5m to sort out. However, the funding data suggests otherwise.
Between 2010 and this year, the government funding the council received fell from £6.2m to £3m, excluding incentives for specific schemes.
Rossendale council argued on Twitter last week the figure had fallen to just £190k a year – but that’s because it was only talking about one particular grant from government, which is being phased out and replaced with councils keeping local business rates instead.
If you add up the reduction of non counciltax money the council has had to suffer, over the last eight years it is pushing nearly £20m.
While the ridiculous situation of the Empty Homes Scandal has added further pressure to the council’s spending plans – the authority presumably has to find the money from somewhere, and even if it hasn’t meant services have had to be cut, it does mean money could have been spent elsewhere – it isn’t the biggest problem the council faces.
The council has dealt with what is now a £3m a year funding reduction compared to 2010 by making a lot of cuts, but still provides a decent service in many areas.
How much longer that can continue is anyone’s guess, not least because it has an annual £1m funding hole to fill in the next few years. Bleak? You bet. And the longer it takes local politicians to start working together for Rossendale, the worse things will be for the people who matter most - us, the tax payers.
This needs to be led by Mr Berry as he is the only person here in Rossendale who can directly input into government policy on local council funding and the only person in this area who actually has a vote on the government’s budget.
In his letter to the Free Press, Mr Berry said: “It’s my job as MP to stand up and say when something is wrong, when something isn’t working and to try and change things for the better.”
No-one would disagree with that statement.
At the moment, funding to Rossendale council - and pretty much every other council in the North isn’t working.
It needs shouting about, and it needs a single choir of voices shouting up for Rossendale, because we’re losing out at the moment.