Copy of the budget amendment: Liberal Democrat Opposition Budget Proposals 1 March 2017

The Liberal Democrat Group on Oldham Council will propose that in this year’s budget more money is invested on highway and environmental improvements to make the Borough’s streets safer and cleaner.

The Leader of the Opposition and of the Liberal Democrat Group, Cllr Howard Sykes MBE, said: “I would like to thank Council officers and my colleagues Councillors John McCann and Diane Williamson for their invaluable support in putting together these proposals.”

“The Liberal Democrat Group recognises that once again this year the Labour Administration has been forced to cut spending and services as the grant from central government has once more been squeezed; and the situation will not improve whilst the Conservatives remain in office.”

“Local government continues to be one of the biggest victims of this Government’s austerity strategy and things will only get worse; by 2021 Oldham will lose its entire central Government grant.”

Labour has again proposed that Council Tax bills rise by 2% to pay for improvements to adult social care and a further 1.99% for other services.

Cllr Sykes commented: “The Liberal Democrats will once again support this rise as it will at least raise some more money for services; but we also think it is important to focus every penny that we have on core services.  As well as revenue-raising, our strategy is to continue to identify savings in back-office bureaucracy and waste to free up money to support the services that are most valued by our ratepayers.”

This year, once more the Liberal Democrats are proposing measures that will generate more than £730,000 in savings each year – from reducing publications, printing and advertising, to tackling absenteeism; and reducing expenditure on employing agency staff and reducing the size of the communications/policy team.  The cash saved will be spent on better roads, cleaner streets and more youth outreach provision.

Cllr Sykes said: “We recognise that this is only a relatively small amount compared to the many millions that this Council has been forced to save, but this modest amount could nonetheless be a game-changer – it would provide us with the revenue we need to borrow more than £5 million to invest in our key highways, with enough left over to radically improve our gully-cleaning service, restore a free Bulky Bobs waste collection service and pay for more youth outreach provision to engage with young people in our communities.”

The Liberal Democrats are calling for over £470,000 from the additional savings that they have identified to go to:

• Fund a £5 million investment programme to tackle the repairs backlog on the borough’s main and secondary highways
• Employ four more staff and an extra vehicle on gully-cleaning across the borough
• Restore the free Bulky Bobs bulk waste collection service to the public
• Increasing the provision for youth outreach workers

Cllr Sykes explained why the Liberal Democrat Group wanted once again, to focus on investing in highway improvements and tackling blocked gullies and fly-tipping across the Borough:

“There is a backlog amounting to over £5 million in road repairs to our Borough’s main and secondary highways.  Our highways improvement programme will make our key roads safer and smoother for drivers and their passengers and our Borough a more attractive one to travel in.”

“An extra gully cleaning team and vehicle will mean we can free up more of the many gullies that are currently clogged with soil.  When a gully is blocked water does not run away and the road can become slippery for drivers, especially when the water turns to ice.  Local properties can also be flooded.  Blocked gullies have to be dug out by hand, which is a slow and labour-intensive process that is costly.  This timely investment on gully-cleaning represents good sense”.

“We also full support returning Bulky Bobs to a free service.  Time and again we read reports in the local press or hear from our constituents about furniture and other bulky household detritus being dumped in our streets.  This is also a complaint made by several Labour Councillors in full Council over the past twelve months.”

“Poorer people are unable to afford to pay for a collection service and irresponsible people do not want to.  Making Bulky Bobs free again would mean that no one has any excuse for dumping these unwanted goods.”