Cross: Why I couldn’t accept budget
Filey’s representative on North Yorkshire County Council has explained why he voted against accepting the Conservativecontrolled authority’s budget recommendation.
UKIP’S Sam Cross said he would not support “swingeing” cuts to services for the most vulnerable, while it had committed hundreds of millions of pounds to a controversial waste incinerator scheme and, nationally, the Government was spend- ing £12bn in overseas aid and committing £50bn to the HS2 project.
In order to save a further £75m on top of the £91m of savings it has already made, the county council is looking to shut libraries, reduce support to the families of disabled children and severely reduce its targeted youth services, which will see youth clubs close and holiday activities curtailed due to a lack of staff.
Cllr Cross said: “Last year this council voted to spend millions upon millions building and operating a waste incinerator near Knaresborough.
“Thi s money could have been put to keeping open libraries and youth centres.
“Money being wasted by central government on vanity projects such as HS2 could instead be used to fund infrastructure projects here and subsiding rural bus services.
“And the biggest saving to the public purse would be to scrap the current two tier county and district council system for one unitary authority.”
The decision to oppose the recomendation was also made by fellow UKIP councillor David Simster.
And the vote comes as the authority’s chief executive Richard Flinton tells The Scarborough News why the cuts are being made. Turn to p6.