Alan Lamb: With a bit of imagination, we can save vital services

Labour said they will have to close around 20 libraries, several leisure centres, a crisis centre, scrap a free city centre bus, close crèches and cut back on road repairs.

They claim they have trawled through every line of the budget and can’t possibly find any more savings and have no choice but to cut front line services.

In preparing an amendment to Labour’s proposals we were clear that, unlike Labour nationally, if we wanted to oppose a cut we had to find an alternative saving somewhere else. It is a mantra that should, I believe, be applied across the country – as illustrated by the budget deliberations in Leeds.

Given the Government’s grant which enables councils to freeze council tax, and given the scale of savings that need to be found, we accepted the overall level of the budget of just over £582m in Leeds.

We agree with and support many of the things that the administration proposes, but there are some really important services they are choosing to cut which we simply cannot support. It was really disappointing that local Labour councillors from across Leeds chose to cut services when there was a way to save them.

Here are some of the amendments we are proposed which Labour voted against. We tabled each amendment separately so that each could be voted on without impacting on the rest of the budget:

All 20 libraries can be kept open for £270,000 per year. We would do this by cutting back on IT across the council by £300,000.

We would save three leisure centres threatened with closure at a cost of around £780,000 by cutting the budget for tables and chairs (£300,000), reducing glossy publications (£210,000), cutting stationery budgets (£200,000) and cutting the equalities budget (£100,000) with the remaining amount from other savings.

We would retain the invaluable free city centre bus which brings valuable business and shoppers to the city centre at a cost of £189,000. This would be funded by increasing car parking capacity at one site (40,000), a reduction in the advertising budget (£133,000) and by scrapping parking charges at Temple Newsam House (£17,000). You did read that right, the council currently raises £23,000 from charging to park at this popular venue, but it costs £40,000 to collect the money!

We would save the Leeds Crisis Centre at a cost of £471,000. We would take this money directly from reserves, some of which is replaced by left-over savings from our other proposals.

Leeds is one of the most expensive cities to park in anywhere in the country. We would boost business and shopping by cutting charges by 20 per cent at a cost of £580,000. This would be funded by introducing new parking meters in three areas of the city.

We would invest £750,000 in apprenticeships by re-prioritising £500,000 Labour had earmarked for a vague job scheme as well as cutting the amount of money the council pays trade unions (£150,000), reducing training budgets (£200,000) and other staff savings (£321,000).

Labour has decided it wants to spend £1.8m on a new website while cutting the budget for road and footpath repairs. We would reverse this decision.

We actually feel there is scope for many more savings and will be continuing to pore over the figures in the coming weeks and months. We also believe there are many cuts hidden within their budget that we don’t yet know about it. For each one we don’t agree with we will find a saving somewhere else.

The chief financial officer of the council has confirmed that our proposals are robust and achievable.

The changes we’re proposing represent a tiny fraction of the overall budget. We have shown that with a little imagination, budgets can be trimmed without cutting valued and vital services.

So when Labour tell you in their leaflets that they had no choice but to close your leisure centre or your library, that they can’t fix your potholes or keep your local youth club open, you need to remember that there is another way – and we have demonstrated this.

The message is simple. If a politician wants to oppose a cut, they have to find a saving elsewhere. It is the only way.

Alan Lamb is a Conservative councillor and shadow spokesman for children’s services and education on Leeds City Council.