Mayor facing child care crisis slammed over £40m cuts plan

THE elected mayor of Doncaster was facing a fresh storm of criticism today after political opponents slammed his plans to cut council tax by three per cent in the wake of the town's crisis in children's services.

Peter Davies has drawn up his budget for the next financial year and confirmed he wants to cut spending, but his figures have been branded "madness" as the authority faces a snap inspection by the Audit Commission.

Some councillors are angry that Mayor Davies aims to slash 40m from the council's budget in the next four years, and have voiced concern that the authority will be unable to fund improvements in any of its services.

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But yesterday Mr Davies said his 40m scheme was as yet an "aspiration" and would depend on a number of factors, including the levels of Government grant support provided to the council later in the decade.

Doncaster Council has faced sustained criticism in the last 12 months, first over the deaths of seven vulnerable children in the town and then over the Edlington attacks, which led to a public apology from officers.

Although Mayor Davies was elected after all of those events, he is now charged with restoring the authority's reputation and dealing with services slammed by watchdogs as "dangerous and chaotic".

It is understood that inspectors were set to start work at the council today, but that was delayed after the Audit Commission realised it needed to assemble and train a special team of staff for the complicated task.

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The mayor said the inspection had no bearing on the authority's budget and added: "There will be no cuts in essential services.

"The idea that there are savage cuts in this budget is ludicrous. If I had proposed a three per cent increase in council tax, I would have been opposed and councillors would have called for the three per cent decrease. The previous mayor was consistently opposed and I now face the same."

In spite of Mayor Davies' assurances councillors have vowed to fight his budget when it is discussed at a meeting of the authority's overview and scrutiny committee tomorrow.

Independent councillor Tony Brown, who is vice-chairman of the committee, described the mayor's figures as "short-sighted" and asked how any service improvements would be funded with less money coming in.

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He said: "It's madness. I think he is being totally irresponsible.

"The mayor has been elected on a populist agenda to cut council tax, but council tax has been kept low under the mayoral system and we are now the worst council in Britain for providing services.

"It is not councillors saying that, it's the Government – we have got inspectors coming in. This budget will save a Band D household about 30 a year and leave the council going backwards."

Mayor Davies refuted the criticism and said: "For the past 35 years, Doncaster has been going backwards under socialist rule. Council tax has doubled in Doncaster in the past 10 years.

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"We have suffered in this country from a colossal increase in public spending, mainly on rubbish and people wouldn't even realise if it was gone.

"This will be a good thing for the people of Doncaster and will put money in their pockets."