Tory £2.8m saving rejected as ‘tinkering around the edges’ (19/02/03)

Somerset County Council voted in favour of an 11.9% council tax rise.Conservatives oppose the decision.At last year’s council meeting, the Conservative Group demanded a fundamental review of the Council’s budget.This has failed to happen.At the hands of the Liberal Democrats, financial mismanagement has worsened.

Allen Cotton, Conservative Finance spokesman told the meeting, ‘in the short time that the budget has been available to me, I have found savings of £2.8 million.£2 million of this would come from the Liberal Democrats sticking to their promise of improving efficiency within procurement.The rest would come from additional funding that was announced by the Government only this week, which seems to have disappeared.’

The Conservative led Procurement Commission found £5 million worth of savings, year on year.The Liberal Democrats threw out the original report, in favour of a watered-down version.However, they accepted the £5million savings target.Now they are refusing to deliver it.Liberal Democrat, Alan Paul, told the council, ‘savings from procurement cannot be guaranteed.’However, Councillor Bob Little, chairman of the Procurement Commission said that £2 million was a very modest figure.

Liberal Demorat, Hazel Prior-Sankey, termed Conservative savings of £2.8 million for the Somerset taxpayer as, ‘tinkering around the edges.’However, this saving would equate to an extra £15 in the pocket of each taxpayer.

In reality, the Government settlement for Somerset this year was 6.75% greater than last year.The way the budget is set is currently from a long wish list.Cutting things from this wish list is not making a saving, as they are items that require extra money to achieve.

Alan Ham, Conservative Councillor, said, ‘Despite the Liberal Democrats talking about the inability of the taxpayer to afford this council tax hike, they have done nothing to reduce it.They are taking more and more money from Somerset residents and yet the recent Performance Assessment gave them only a fair rating.’