Budget is stuff of dreams...

Lower council taxes, more pothole repairs and cleaner streets at no extra cost to the public, what’s not to like about the Conservative’s alternative budget for Sunderland?

They even find room to save £100,000 ‘wasted’ on councillors, fund the replacement of stolen wheelie bins and rake in more cash from parking charges.

And all this despite their bosses in Whitehall hacking away at council budgets.

It’s a dream budget that, on paper, solves the ills of our city at a stroke. Problem is, it really is the stuff of dreams and, in all likelihood, will never make that leap from paper to power.

Critics will pour scorn on the proposals, arguing that it is always easy to talk a good budget, quite another to deliver one.

Labour have been on the receiving end of similar barbs from the Tories with their own ideas on the national stage.

Jeremy Corbyn’s popular election promises of more bobbies on the beat, free hospital parking and extra millions for the NHS drew howls of derision from the ministers in blue.

Great ideas but how will they be funded? Does Labour have a ‘magic money tree?’

The shoe is on the other foot now and Labour have wasted no time in using it to deliver a kick to the Tory nether regions.

There’s much knockabout political banter to be had from this alternative budget, but that’s not to say the ideas are without merit.

If nothing else they serve to keep Labour on its toes.

And there are even ideas that have cross-party appeal, in particular the move to bring in a bottle recycling scheme which may yet see the light of day.

Who knows, maybe the alternative budget is not just the stuff of dreams ... watch this space.