Tories fear return to 'postcode politics' as city cuts funding

PLANS by the new Labour and Green coalition in control of Leeds City Council to cut tens of thousands in funding to people living in outer suburbs of the city will come under fire at a meeting tomorrow.

Leader of the Conservative Group on the council Coun Andrew Carter said the cuts would see a significant reduction to the funding available in outer areas of the city such as Temple Newsam, Garforth, Farnley, Wortley, Alwoodley, Pudsey and Wetherby.

The changes are set to be considered by the council's executive board which will discuss a report in which it is proposed to change the formula by which 3m of annual funding is allocated to the city's 10 area committees.

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Coun Carter said: "The new Labour/Green administration has been in power for just over two months and already we are seeing a return to the bad old days of Labour group control in Leeds, where postcode politics are the norm.

"Under the previous administration we were at pains to make sure that funding allocations were fair and that both inner and outer areas of the city received fair funding allocations through the area committee system.

"These proposals change all that. What the new Labour/Green partnership must realise is that the areas where they are prioritising this

funding already receive a large amount of the council's spending – specifically to tackle deprivation."

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As a result of the change areas such as Temple Newsam and Garforth and Swillington wards will be 9,705 worse off each year, while communities in Guiseley and Rawdon will be 26,000 worse off.

"I don't believe that these proposals are fair and I hope that the executive board meeting will see them for what they are and reject them," he added.

But executive board member for neighbourhoods and housing Labour councillor Peter Gruen said the move would help the most deprived areas of the city ahead of swingeing Government cuts to funding which would hit the worst-off hardest.

"We acknowledge that some outer areas will get less funding, but in the vast majority of areas there is little change and some of the inner city areas do gain. It was a 50-50 balance until 2003, and then when Andrew Carter came in, he changed it to 75-25," he said.

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"With the onslaught of Government cuts about to be faced, we want to go back to the balance there was before and protect as much as we can some of the most vulnerable communities."

The council established area committees in 2004 to ensure that the planning and delivery of services reflected local priorities across the city.

The committees play an important role in the delivery and coordination of local services.

They aim to improve the quality of life across the city by strengthening the role of elected members in making decisions which impact upon the areas they represent.

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The current formula for allocating well-being resources between the 10 committees was established by the executive board in September 2004.

It determined that 75 per cent of the available resource was to be distributed on a per capita basis and 25 per cent based on the level of

deprivation measured by the number of households in receipt of benefit.

Coun Carter says the new administration proposes to change the per capita-deprivation balance from 75 per cent and 25 per cent to a 50-50 split to address pockets of deprivation.

The report proposes that these changes in the funding formula should take immediate effect.