Labour Blasts Budget

LABOUR has blasted the Tory budget for Southend City Council, which was released recently.

 The budget, say Labour, adds £19m of additional funding pressure to the Council’s already strained budgets and seeks to make 80+ people redundant in an effort to reduce costs.

 Labour has criticised this budget, saying it is balanced by unfairly targeting services used by vulnerable people.

 Coun Daniel Cowan, Leader of the City council’s Labour Group said: “This is quite unbelievable.

“Despite claiming they could deliver a better budget and blaming the Council’s financial difficulties on Labour, the Conservatives’ own budget paper clearly states that nearly all financial pressures are caused by external factors and no additional funding from their own government to keep up with the unprecedented increase in costs and complexity of delivering services like adult social care, temporary housing, and children’s social services.

 “Southend’s government funding grant hasn’t kept up with inflation let alone begun to address the £54m per year that has been taken by the Tories since 2010.

 “What is proposed is ‘unmanaged decline’ where services are cut that are used by some of the most vulnerable people in the city. We fully oppose closing family centres or reducing the vital services they provide.

 “We also have to consider that the Tories are putting council tax up by 5% at the same time they’re cutting bin collections to once a fortnight and for many people this is the only service they actively see.

 “We believe there is a better way forward to address the financial challenges we face without cutting vital services.”

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