Political Viewpoint

BY Coun Martin Terry Leader of the Independent Group on Southend City Council.

AS we approach the May 2nd Local elections a review of the budget and other decisions is worthwhile.

As an Independent my perspective is somewhat different from the party-political actors who always give their version of events through either blue, red, yellow, or green tinted glasses.

The simple facts are these. For over the past decade Southend City Council has faced austerity cuts from its central grant formula of many millions, appx £50m. In this same period demand has increased to such a degree that Statutory Services, services we must provide, will consume all of our budget unless we take drastic action.

The implications are that in the end non-statutory services, such as libraries and parks for example, will start to feel the pinch. But despite what you may have heard, Southend’s finances are rated good compared to many other Local Authorities, but we cannot be complacent.

The city will need to transform how it operates ASAP, something I have pushed as Chairman of Audit.

Many other Councils have already hit a bad level and are reducing or closing all services, other than the statutory duties such as Adult and Childrens Social Care. The government is fully aware of this, Southend Council, along with 40 Conservative MP’s and the LGA wrote to the PM asking for more money.

They doled out £500m, of which Southend got £1.17m, a mere sticking plaster when our Social Care overspend is about £10m.

It irks me that our local MP’s, including Anna Firth, were not signatures to this letter. Once again it seems that party politicians would rather “play the politics game” than speak truth to power.

Southend Conservative Councillors and MP’s chose to imply that Southend is going bankrupt, and this mess was caused by the previous coalition, of which I was part. This is an outrageous misrepresentation and is just another example of why I will not join any political party.

To reputationally damage our city with false bankruptcy claims for political gain is totally irresponsible. This causes a lack of confidence and puts private investors off, disgraceful antics.

We can discuss antics further. Last year the Conservative’s made a huge political football out of the renewal of our waste services. On every election leaflet and on social media they claimed that only a vote for them would protect the current weekly service. Even Anna Firth joined in the fray with video clips making the same claims, these are easily sourced on my Facebook at Martin William Terry.

They specifically said, “if you want to keep your weekly collections then vote Conservative”.

So, on October the 31 last they broke their solemn promise to you and voted through fortnightly collection service as an executive decision, it was their decision alone, unlike the budget, which we can amend.

Because the Conservatives do not have enough votes, we did force through some changes to their budget. On principle we feel felt that whilst local taxpayers are facing cuts to vital services, you should not be subsidising the day tripper economy. We have restored the 6-9 pm parking fees in seafront tourist zones, but reduced all other charges across all areas helping city residents and local shops by an average 11%.

It is worth noting that day trippers cost us all an absolute fortune cleaning up their mess, beach cleaning, additional toilets and community services all come out of your taxes.

When I say restored 6-9 pm fees in seafront tourist zones it was earlier removed when the Conservatives took over and made and made this unfunded cut.

Based on their own numbers and parking bay revenue valuations, the cut to favour the Seafront Traders has cost our city a minimum of £500k, but in reality, at least £1m from the Highways budget.

If you are wondering why there are so many potholes you have your answer, this money came out of the Highways dept. Our roads are the worst I have ever seen, dangerous for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians alike. It is so bad that I note that some social media wag has said Southend City is unofficially twinned with the Grand Canyon due to the number of potholes.

Furthermore, and to allay any concerns over parking on the seafront in the evening, we have added a further 3 hours onto the Southend Pass as a special add-on.

The Southend Pass gives you 15 hours per day across the whole city for just 34p per day including 3-9 pm, 6 hours, on the seafront,15 hours per day in total. You can also register more than one car on a single pass. This really is the deal of the century.

I make no apology for targeting tourist zones and putting locals first, it costs you all an arm and a leg. It is simply immoral to discount visitor fees whilst cutting vital services for residents.

We also restored most of our award-winning dementia care navigators, which was planned to be scrapped, put more money into tree planting and added 3 more community safety Officers.

All these things are signed off and balanced by the city treasurer as sound.

Hopefully I have encouraged you to really consider carefully what your local priorities are and what Party Politicians are saying to you in this upcoming election. In the meantime, I will continue being happily Independent, putting residents first.

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