Proposed by Councillor Phil Davies

Seconded by Councillor Foulkes.

(1)  Council notes, with amazement, the breathtakingly reckless economics behind the Conservative Group’s behaviour on this Council. This includes:

(a)  a virtually total opposition to all savings proposed by the Cabinet in order to reduce the burden on Wirral’s council tax payers.  If this were implemented it would so far have cost the council tax payers a minimum of £11m, which is the equivalent of an 11% increase in council tax over and above the current projected increase of 4%, giving an increase of 15%.  (Council further notes that as increases of over 5% are likely to be capped, this would not only incur further costs to the Council in re-billing, but mean that over ten million pounds worth of Council services would have to be dramatically slashed within the period of just a few weeks in order to restore the budget to a legal level);

(b)  the use of a much vaunted £90m of reserves to support their lack of any viable alternative to the measures currently proposed by Cabinet.  This would not only bankrupt the Council for the future, in the same way that their use of £13m of balances to hide the impact of the poll tax created a hole in Wirral’s finances from which we are even now only just recovering, but would mean, amongst other things:

• raiding school balances to support general Council expenditure, which is illegal;
• running the Council with zero balances, instead of the £6m recommended by the District Auditor, which means any minor overspend immediately places the Council into an illegal position;
• using the Council’s insurance fund, which is used to self-insure against claims or, in the case of very large claims, pay the initial excess. This would effectively leave the Council uninsured and liable for massive future costs and legal cases;
• using money paid in advance by the Government to fund specific schemes for purposes other than that for which the money is reserved, which would leave the Council liable for major clawbacks in the future;
• using money reserved against potential overpayment by the Government on housing benefits, which again would leave the Council liable to large claims without the money to meet them;
• using money allocated from other sources for specific projects which are not yet completed.

(2)  Council further notes that this reckless behaviour, which would severely damage the Council’s financial position and ability to offer services to the people of Wirral, is matched by the national position of the Conservative Party, which is to cut £5billion from public spending, including £240million from the Formula Grant paid to local authorities and at the same time promise a council tax freeze, leading to further devastation of local services.

(3)  Council also notes that the dodgy accounting of the local Conservative Group is matched by that of their party nationally, who have so far declared the use of the same pot of money (government advertising and consultancy fees) twice for completely different purposes.

Proposed by Councillor Phil Davies

Seconded by Councillor Foulkes

(1) Council notes, with amazement, the breathtakingly reckless economics behind the Conservative Group’s behaviour on this Council. This includes:

(a) a virtually total opposition to all savings proposed by the Cabinet in order to reduce the burden on Wirral’s council tax payers. If this were implemented it would so far have cost the council tax payers a minimum of £11m, which is the equivalent of an 11% increase in council tax over and above the current projected increase of 4%, giving an increase of 15%. (Council further notes that as increases of over 5% are likely to be capped, this would not only incur further costs to the Council in re-billing, but mean that over ten million pounds worth of Council services would have to be dramatically slashed within the period of just a few weeks in order to restore the budget to a legal level);

(b) the use of a much vaunted £90m of reserves to support their lack of any viable alternative to the measures currently proposed by Cabinet. This would not only bankrupt the Council for the future, in the same way that their use of £13m of balances to hide the impact of the poll tax created a hole in Wirral’s finances from which we are even now only just recovering, but would mean, amongst other things:

• raiding school balances to support general Council expenditure, which is illegal;

• running the Council with zero balances, instead of the £6m recommended by the District Auditor, which means any minor overspend immediately places the Council into an illegal position;

• using the Council’s insurance fund, which is used to self-insure against claims or, in the case of very large claims, pay the initial excess. This would effectively leave the Council uninsured and liable for massive future costs and legal cases;

• using money paid in advance by the Government to fund specific schemes for purposes other than that for which the money is reserved, which would leave the Council liable for major claw-backs in the future;

• using money reserved against potential overpayment by the Government on housing benefits, which again would leave the Council liable to large claims without the money to meet them;

• using money allocated from other sources for specific projects which are not yet completed.

(2) Council further notes that this reckless behaviour, which would severely damage the Council’s financial position and ability to offer services to the people of Wirral, is matched by the national position of the Conservative Party, which is to cut £5billion from public spending, including £240million from the Formula Grant paid to local authorities and at the same time promise a council tax freeze, leading to further devastation of local services.

(3) Council also notes that the dodgy accounting of the local Conservative Group is matched by that of their party nationally, who have so far declared the use of the same pot of money (government advertising and consultancy fees) twice for completely different purposes.

Having applied the guillotine the Council did not debate this matter.

Resolved (40:25:1) – That the motion be approved.