Labour accused of cutting voluntary groups’ lifeline

York’s Liberal Democrat group claims the city council’s cabinet is attempting to claw back money from ward committees that has not yet been spent – even if it has been committed to a project – meaning a number of the schemes will be scrapped.

However, the cabinet member in charge of the fund has rubbished the claims and insists the projects will still go ahead.

Coun Nigel Ayre, Liberal Democrat spokesman for Leisure, Culture and Social Inclusion, has blamed the cabinet’s alleged move on its “inability to control overspending”.

He said: “When Labour took control of the council they were very keen to highlight how they planned to ‘reverse £1m of cuts’ to the council budget. They even used their budget amendment to give ward committees some extra money. Yet, now the headlines from that particular stunt have subsided, residents are finding out that Labour are in fact about to force an in year cut.”

Coun Ayre claimed many of the scrapped schemes were unlikely to be revived with funding from next year’s budgets.

He said: “The current indications are that Labour are planning to reduce ward committee budgets by at least 50 per cent next year.”

Coun Sonja Crisp, York Council’s cabinet member for Leisure, Culture and Social Inclusion, said the authority needed to ensure it balanced its budget and accused Coun Ayre of “causing mischief”.

“The number of looked after children is increasing, as is the demand for elderly care services which has been the case in recent years. Coun Ayre will be well aware of the need to balance the budget, and knowing these budget pressures as he does, he must believe local ward schemes are more important than care for the elderly, something I most strenuously disagree with.

“All schemes with funding committed will go ahead, and this reallocation only applies to unallocated funding in wards’ budgets to date.

“It’s funny he should cry foul when he himself proposed and pushed through a cut to ward committees before his party lost power last year. He clearly has nothing better to do than attempt to cause mischief.”