Swindon Council budget approved by full council (From Swindon Advertiser)

Swindon Council budget approved by full council

11:23pm Thursday 21st February 2013 in News

SWINDON Council’s Conservative administration has seen their proposed budget passed by a small margin.

The conservatives, who hold a slim majority of one, were missing Councillor Peter Heaton-Jones at tonight’s full cabinet meeting but had their budget passed thanks to support from the Liberal Democrats.

The Labour party proposed amendments to the proposed budget which included further cuts to Forward Swindon and savings spent on addressing potholes and retaining the subsidy of buses but that was not accepted by the full council.

The Liberal Democrats did manage to get an amendment to the budget as they were able to decrease the cut to the locality budget by £61,000.

Councillor Mark Edwards, cabinet member for finance said that the budget was risky but thinks it will benefit residents.

He said: “This budget is not with out risk but it is a positive budget.

“These are the most challenging financial times that local councils have seen.

“The challenge is far from over.”

Politicians on all parties voted in favour of freezing council tax for the next year.

The final budget proposals aim to plug an estimated £16m gap in the budget for 2013/14.

Speaking at tonight’s meeting Labour Leader Jim Grant said: “We recognise that tough decisions have to be made by the Council in this budget and future budgets.

“With our amendment, if Labour were in power we would offer a different set of priorities, rather than simply managing the decline of services for Council-taxpayers, vulnerable people and our town’s unemployed.”