Government is responsible for setting councils’ priorities

I WAS most interested to read the article by Rachel Reeves MP for Leeds West (Yorkshire Post, February 10) in which she says that a Labour government would “work in partnership with charities – recognising the long-term value these groups can offer society”. I suggest that she looks no further than York to see what her Labour colleagues are actually doing.

Here the voluntary sector is facing not only a cut in funding but also a cessation of the dialogue which normally goes on between councils and their partners in the voluntary sector – par for the course for a council whose employees found out that they would lose their job through the media.

Additionally the move by Labour to remove care services from those with moderate needs and provide social services for those with only substantial or critical needs will mean more, not less, work for these charities. However money can be found for an extra cabinet member and two more union officials.

Those who normally help charities, volunteers and donors will also have to face a swingeing five per cent tax increase over two years, a reduction in repairs of highways and pavements of some £2.6m, the cessation of the green waste collection, higher car park fees and increased council borrowing of £20m.

This is not because of Government cuts but to pay for wi-fi to be installed in the city centre – a benefit for a few and a luxury which is unaffordable at present.

From: Councillor James Alexander, Labour Leader of City of York Council, Holgate Road, Holgate, York.

THE Tory-led Government’s policy means more cuts in York than Labour, or larger council tax increases in the future than Labour. Council finance officers have confirmed that if we took the Government’s “buy now pay later” council tax funding option, it would mean £2.2m extra in cuts over the next two years.

Or alternatively, a further £300k of cuts this year and an even larger 4.5 per cent council tax increase next year.

Some good Labour councils may have reserves which can fund the shortfall and freeze council tax.

In York, Labour inherited a budget in May from the previous Liberal Democrat administration which has left us with no such luxury.

York will not be bullied or bribed by the Tory-led Government into increased cuts or higher future council tax rises.

This Government talks to the talk about localism but doesn’t walk the walk. As soon a local decision is taken which against their increased cuts or higher council tax rise agenda, they threaten political retribution.

York Labour’s proposed council tax rise is 2.9 per cent.

This is below inflation and currently the lowest predicted rise of any Labour authority rejecting the Government’s council tax funding. This is less than the proposed rises of Conservative controlled North Dorset, Dover, Taunton Deane, Tunbridge Wells, Scarborough, Surrey, Cambridgeshire, East Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.