Budget Meeting 2016

The most important council meeting of the year. It’s by far the most unpleasant meeting of the year too.

We in Labour failed to convince voters we should gain control in Trafford last year; and this is the consequence. We have a Tory council with free reign to direct whatever any spending choices towards Altrincham and Hale.

Power within the Conservative group is concentrated with the leader, deputy-leader, finance and most of the influence coming from the Hale – Bowdon – Altrincham axis. Hale gets its brand new library whilst Davyhulme loses theirs.

That’s the Conservative way.

And the Conservative way is replicated all the way to the top. When it came to the Government helping out councils, it chose a method that benefitted councils who’d suffered the least in the years of austerity. Surrey gets the largest single amount, at £24m, followed by Hampshire (£19m), Hertfordshire (£16m), Essex (£14m), West Sussex (£12m), Kent (£11m), Buckinghamshire (£9m) and Oxfordshire (£9m). You couldn’t make it up. A scheme that rewards councils for the most billionaire’s mansions within their domains.

Trafford gets the relatively pitiful transitional £0.5m for 2016/17, but it’s still more than any other council in Greater Manchester apart from Stockport. It feels like Trafford is being patronised by Tories from the Shires who are blessed with more moats than foodbanks.

We’re left with a budget gap of £22.6m. They’re imposing the Osborne Tax to raise £1.6m. They’re not increasing base council tax even if the Government expects them to. Much of the savings will be invisible to many but grim and confusing to a few. We’ve seen an illustration of this with the home to school transport for young people with special needs attending Brentwood school. The parents and children were protesting last night. You can’t make these sorts of savings without hurting people or communities. I think people get this now.

We in the Labour Party have a responsibility to take the battle to the Tories. We need to be winning seats.

Trafford Town Hall by Peter McDermott, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons