Labour claims it can balance budgets without making cuts

As well as removing the threats hanging over Springhead Park and Sutton Park, the new administration, which swept to power in the recent elections, is halting the redundancy process which has seen 1,000 staff leave Hull Council.

Last year the council announced plans to seek a “joint venture arrangement” with a private operator to cut the costs of running both courses as part of plans to slash more than £40m from its budget.

The former Lib Dem administration had proposed a cut of £120,000, which would have seen the grounds maintenance team reduced from four to three and the grass cutting programme reduced.

But Coun Phil Webster, a former secretary and member at Sutton, who has worked on Labour’s budget along with deputy group leader Daren Hale, said the courses would be spared.

Coun Webster also said Labour still intends removing £200,000 from the city’s flagship Albemarle Music Centre – however it is half the cut the Lib Dems were proposing

The Yorkshire Post has already revealed that under Labour’s plans, which will be published next week and are expected to go to full council on June 16, two of three council-run care homes will remain open, but Salingar House – where there are only four people left –will close.

Labour claims that by not making redundancy payments to 400 people it will “save” £8m.

Coun Webster said: “There was only a requirement to make £39m worth of cuts. Hull Council was making £65m of cuts to pay for redundancies.

“They were trying to close the gap in the medium-term financial plan in one year which we didn’t think was fair.

“If you have a moratorium on posts you can actually shrink it over the years without pain, whereas they were making redundancies to fund cuts.”

The Lib Dems said it will still cause pain down the line.

Coun Mike Ross said: “If they plan to make the cuts over a longer period of time this will inevitably mean more painful cuts spread over many more years.

“What secret cuts are they planning on and what tax rises will be in store for Hull’s already hard-pressed residents?”

He also posed the question: “Is this Labour’s budget or is it their paymasters in the unions?”

However Coun Webster insisted that “virtually everything we have promised has been put back in.”.

Asked about possible council tax rises Coun Webster said they “would bite the Government’s hands off” if they again were prepared to help freeze the tax by providing extra funding.

Asked what would happen if they didn’t, he said: “If not we will have to go back to the drawing board and have a rethink about the situation.”

Coun Webster said Labour leader Steve Brady had visited Salingar House – “a dark dismal place” – and of the four people still resident, three wanted to move “straight away.”

A major campaign was fought over the Albemarle Music Centre on Ferensway which the Duchess of Kent – who taught incognito at a Hull primary school for years – described as “absolutely amazing” and “probably the best in the country”.

Coun Webster said: “It is unfair to pick out one service and say you are not taking any cuts when there are other services which are bearing the brunt.”

The secretary of the City of Hull Young Musicians Friends Association, Steve Clark said they would be “better off than under the Lib Dems”.

But he said because of the commitment to provide the same level of service to schools until the summer holidays with reduced funding, that it was “not going to be an easy year.”