Council accused of sacrificing city’s key services for ‘wish list’

The ruling administration of York Council has drawn up a series of contentious projects while it is faced with enforcing millions of pounds in cutbacks due to dwindling amounts of funding from the Government.

Figures obtained by the Yorkshire Post have revealed that borrowing at the authority has seen a dramatic rise since Labour came to power after in May 2011.

Loan interest repayments on money borrowed is set to increase from £5.6m in 2010/11, shortly before Labour came into office after ousting the ruling Liberal Democrats in May 2011, to £7.3m in the 2014/15 financial year – a rise of 30 per cent throughout a period when interest rates have remained at record low levels.

The leader of the council’s Tory group, Coun Ian Gillies, condemned Labour for schemes including the city’s Arts Barge, which is a floating arts venue, and introducing 20mph speed limits in neighbourhoods across York while taxpayers have been faced with a 1.9 per cent rise in council tax in the current financial year.

Coun Gillies admitted that borrowing is “always an option and on occasions a necessity”, but accused the Labour administration and council leader James Alexander of pursuing “vanity projects which bring no tangible benefits to York”.

He added: “Increased interest payments come out of the revenue budget, and this means less money is available for spending on core services such as emptying green bins, gritting roads 
and filling potholes – the very services which residents assume they are paying for with their council taxes.

“Nationally the Government is attempting to reduce borrowing following Labour’s mishandling of the economy, but in York we have Coun Alexander still singing the same old Labour tune, running his administration on borrowed money to fund his party’s ‘wish-list’.

“We think residents want value for money and sometimes that means shelving the ‘nice to have’ in favour of basic services which benefit all of York’s residents.”

The increases in borrowing have come as the authority is battling to make £20m in cuts over the next two financial years due to the Government’s austerity measures. The latest council tax increase which has been introduced means an average increase of 38p per week for the city’s residents, and comes after a 2.9 per cent council tax rise in York for the previous financial year despite the Government’s attempts to impose freezes nationally.

A further 240 jobs will be lost at the council over the next two years amid the multi-million pound cost-cutting drive. The council is due to have lost 488 posts in the five years up until March 2015.

However, the council’s cabinet member for finance, performance and customer service, Coun Dafydd Williams, was adamant that the Labour administration had overseen prudent financial policies throughout its time in power.

Coun Williams said: “Apart from being confused about the year in which Labour won a majority to run the council, Coun Gillies has conflated the debt figures of our administration with those of the previous Liberal Democrat-Conservative administration of which his party was part. It in fact added some £60m to the council’s debt position shortly before leaving office.

“Subsequent to that Labour has invested, notably through the Economic Infrastructure Fund, in the local economy in a way that will see further private sector investment made in the city. A significant proportion of the money we have borrowed has been on an invest to save basis, so with no impact on the local taxpayer. This shows that as well as investing in the city’s future we are finding ways of doing things more efficiently.”