ON WEDNESDAY, I received a call from a Swindon resident who was mistakenly concerned that the Labour Group had wanted to further increase Swindon’s Council Tax rate in order to pay for services designed to support the vulnerable and maintain Swindon’s local environment, both areas that the Conservative Group have decided to cut.
He picked up on a part of the Labour Group Leader’s Council speech where he said: “In my experience, council tax payers are happy to contribute their hard earned money if they believe that this money will bring positive results to this town.” This is a statement I endorse, however, as I said to the concerned Swindon resident, in this year’s budget there was enough money that could be saved from areas of council expenditure that did not directly bring positive results to Swindon (the Labour Group raised £400,000 in savings from non-essential council expenditure), in order to both save council services designed to maintain the local environment and support the vulnerable, as well as keeping the council tax increase at the same level as the Conservatives proposed.
Some of the areas of non-essential spending include:
• A gross-spend of £560,000 on the council’s communications budget.
• £129,400 agreed to be spent on a London lobbying firm.
• £33,000 on council hospitality.
• £15,000 on a membership with Cotswold Water Park.
• And more than £146,000 on consultancy fees.
After the Labour Group Leader, Derique Montaut, raised his concerns with the Conservative Group Leader about spending Swindon Council-tax payers’ money on these areas, while cutting money from essential council services that affect all Swindon residents, he dismissed Derique’s concerns, preferring to criticise his dealings with council officers and questioning his abilities.
As a longstanding politician, Derique Montaut can deal with such personal attacks but what really frustrated me about the Leader of the Council’s reply was his complete inability to understand that the areas of council spending he intended to cut were not more important than the areas I have highlighted above. I will leave Swindon’s residents to decide whether they believe their council leader is still in touch with their needs.
JIM GRANT
Deputy Leader of the Labour Group
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