Surrey Lib Dems give council budget a 'thumbs down'

At the Full Council meeting on 04 February the Lib Dem group voted against the budget put forward by the Conservative administration.

In his speech responding to the budget proposals, Cllr Paul Follows, Leader of the Surrey Lib Dems acknowledged the challenge of producing a balanced budget in the face of current uncertainties in local government finance. However, there was much in the detail, including £66.4m of planned savings that he believed would likely put services to the most vulnerable residents as risk, and he therefore could not support it.

He described it as a balanced budget, but ‘on paper only’, and questioned the sustainability of funding pothole repairs through borrowing and asset sales, as well as using £5m of precious reserves for verge cutting.

In turn he put forward two proposals on behalf of the Lib Dem group. The first, a voluntary contribution scheme for council tax band H residents and secondly, a motion to commission an external review of some aspects of the budget, to reassure members and residents that the Council’s finances were transparent, robust and sustainable.

After the meeting, Paul expressed his frustration, but not his surprise, at having both of his proposals voted down.

“Some of the objections from the Conservative members to the voluntary Band H scheme were completely disproportionate and frankly did not reflect well on them. A similar arrangement has already been successfully implemented by Westminster Council and my proposal was that this was something that we should at least look at.

With regard to the second proposal - our Group has serious concerns about some of the risks not just to next year’s budget but also over the next five years. The level of borrowing to spend on capital projects is definitely a concern, as is the level of reserves the Council says it has. We need to be sure that when this budget meets the ‘real world’, there are no nasty surprises hidden in the information we have been given. A review by an external body as I have suggested, would certainly give us more confidence in how the County Council’s finances are being managed.”