Opposition leaders’ views on the budget

Peterborough City Council’s Labour leader Shaz Nawaz gives his group’s reaction to Peterborough City Council’s phase two budget plans...

Phase two of the budget is a culmination of aggressive cuts from successive Conservative governments alongside the inability of the Conservative administration in Peterborough to manage change effectively.

Residents are once again picking up the tab for the mistakes and mismanagement of finances by the Conservatives.

Alongside this, there are concerning proposed budget cuts to key area such as adult social care, children’s services, culture and leisure among a host of other services.

Year-on-year residents are forced to pay more but in return get less for their money such as fewer libraries that are open for a limited number of hours, reduced road cleansing and less help for people who need necessary support.

Much of what is being proposed could have been avoided by making the right decisions at the right time. The proposed cuts are a direct result of kicking the can down the road and now we’re literally facing bankruptcy.

As recently as the last full council meeting in January, so deluded are this administration that they continue to talk about: “21 years of growth and& prosperity” most people would expect to see improvements as a result of growth and prosperity, not year-onyear of relentless cuts.

Our city is being subjected to a slow and painful death, with services being decimated, underinvestment in many of the poorer areas of the cty and the most vulnerable in society being hit the hardest.

Peterborough is a wonderful place which can be made better with proper care and attention. This can be done, but this needs a fresh approach.

Peterborough City Council’s Green Party leader Julie Howell gives her group’s reaction...

Peterborough Green Party is extremely disappointed by this news.

For Peterborough residents, who may not read the local Press but who walk around our city every day, the impact of these cuts will be painfully evident: streets will be dirtier, fly-tipping will be left in the environment for longer, some areas of grass will be longer, beds of wild flowers will disappear and green spaces may be left undefended.

The reduction in the tree management budget will have a negative impact on areas such as Bretton, Orton Longueville and Orton Waterville, which have the greatest tree canopy cover in the city.

The closure of the Tourist Information Centre is another bitter blow. It is simply not true that everyone has access to online information at home or on the move. At a time when we are trying to encourage

more people to visit, this proposal is very disappointing.

While libraries are a statutory service that the council must provide, we are very concerned by what to use seems to represent a watering down of a professionally-run service to which the residents of Peterborough should be entitled.

The proposal to co-locate Peterborough Citizens Advice with the libraries, is interesting but the mention of volunteers in place of qualified professionals is worrying.

The council must find a way to retain all of the city’s library buildings as fully-functioning libraries while also enhancing the mobile library service.

And while we are being assured that proposals to make cuts to children’s services and adult social care will not affect the standard of care, surely reductions will have some negative impact?

It is now clear that there has been a lack of direction and leadership for many years. Unfortunately, it is residents who will pay for such mistakes through increases in council tax and cuts to services.

Peterborough City Council’s Lib Dem leader Nick Sandford gives his group’s reaction...

Opposition parties have been involved in budget discussions to a greater extent this year but this is still a Conservative budget, reflecting Conservative priorities and has been brought about by over 20 years of mismanagement of the city council finances by successive Conservative administrations.

The budget shows a “slash and burn” approach to financial management .

There are serious concerns about the deliverability of some of the £3 million worth of cuts in adult social care and children’s services, not to mention the impact they may have on some of the most vulnerable people in society.

Cllr Fitgerald’s statement in the PT that: “culture is a big drain on our budget” is very revealing and it is reflected in his proposals to “remodel” library provision. Many of our biggest libraries are only opening for three hours a day now, so it’s obvious that the Tories intend to close a number of them. Yes let’s look at getting volunteers more involved in running them but that will take time and a big arbitrary cut in the budget is not the way to do it.

The budget is also a missed opportunity.

The council has a strategic priority of getting the city to net zero carbon by 2030, a very ambitious target. There are lots of ways of doing that by spending money differently not by spending more.

That opportunity has been missed and the fact the Tories are spending £8 million on upgrading the parkways will do nothing for tackling climate change and tells us a lot about their real transport priorities.