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Wokingham Conservatives declared services will not be cut in the next financial year, despite saving £4.5 million
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Tories vow council tax freeze won’t hit services

By Victoria Smith
February 29, 2012

Taxpayers will not see the amount they pay to Wokingham Borough Council increase this year.

But the ruling Conservative party has been accused of hiding costs and introducing stealth taxes for waste collection.

Wokingham Conservatives declared services will not be cut in the next financial year, despite saving £4.5 million, while millions will be invested in schools and the town centre regeneration project.

However, the Liberal Democrats questioned the transparency of the budget, saying it does not go into enough detail of where money is going.

Councillor David Lee, leader of the council, said when commending the budget for approval at a meeting at the civic offices last Thursday, February 23: “Here in Wokingham we are well used to being at the end of the funding queue.

“We have for many years been the worst funded authority in England.

“However with a Conservative administration and excellent staff we have risen to the challenge of a 14 per cent cut in this current year and a 10 per cent cut next year.

“And we will not be cutting services.

Councillor Prue Bray, leader of the Lib Dems, said the budget failed to mention Wokingham Enterprise Ltd, the firm set up by the council to oversee the regeneration, and did not specify how much money will be spent via Optalis, the council’s new company set up to run social care services.

She said: “I have asked the question separately and got the answer that the council has a contract with Optalis worth £9.2 million.

“I cannot tie this figure with any of the figures given in the revenue budget for commissioning services.”

She added the one-off grant from the Government that is enabling the council to freeze its share of the tax will create an immediate 2.5 per cent pressure next year.

She said: “I am not in favour of asking residents to pay more council tax in difficult financial times.

“But I am also not in favour of only looking to the short-term.

“The belief of the last Labour Government that you can buy things today but not have to pay for them until tomorrow is one of the things that got into the current economic mess.

“From that point of view a one-year council tax freeze grant strikes me as not a very good idea at all.

“While I can see the attraction, you may live to regret taking it.”

Cllr Sue Smith, Lib Dem councillor for Loddon, said the new green waste collection charge of £60 per year would mean a resident will pay £600 over 10 years for a wheelie bin that cost the council £25.

She added the alternative paper sacks for green waste cost £1 each for residents, but cost the council 25p to buy.

She said: “We have always said the cost of joining the green waste scheme was too high – other councils do it for much less.

“And not to have any concessions for those on low incomes is appalling, given those margins.”

Conservative Cllr Gary Cowan, executive member for environment at the council, pointed out the new green waste scheme will mean 10,000 additional homes can receive the service and the cap on waste for households will save the council £1 million a year.

Cllr Beth Rowland, Lib Dem member for South Lake, said the council’s capital programme for schools shows less money will be spent than in previous budgets.

The budget was rubber-stamped after the ruling Conservative group voted in favour of it. An average Band D property can expect to pay £1,199.24 for 2012/13.

Key features of the budget

- Town centre regeneration project to receive £37 million over the coming years, as well as £400,000 in the next financial year for pre-application work and a £200,000 contingency fund. Borrowing costs are expected to be around £1.5m over the next three years.

- Schools to receive £26m over the next three years for improvement work.

- £500,000 to build a new special education needs unit at All Saints Primary School in Norreys Avenue.

- More than £3m for the station link road project.

- More than £7m for improvements to highways.

- £19m to improve the council’s housing stock.

- Budget for adult social care to increase to more than £40m with an additional £1.1m towards preventative and mental health care.

- £300,000 to be spent over the next two years on a feasibility study for a new secondary school in the borough. This refers to the plan to move The Emmbrook School to Arborfield to cater for new housing planned for the south of the borough.

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Most recent user comments 9 of 9

IP - just seems that this is knowledge that our elected representatives should already have; I would be very disappointed to find out that they don't! Even if they didn't know and understand our borough already, it surely would be cheaper for people within the council to determine Wokingham's wants and needs than an external company. I take your point that 'It's hard to please everbody' though.

£90k is peanuts in the grand scheme of things, and spent on something that was sensible and worthwhile no-one would complain - we spend millions on repairing social housing every year, for instance - but spending on things that should already be covered in the council's wage bill (and after another round of redundancies, cuts, pension attacks) angers me.

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
01/03/2012 at 14:15

DT - You are forgiven! I agree totally with you that Council Tax probably should've gone up this year. 2.5% increase is minimal for many households and they wouldn't notice the difference. The public and government (national) have put huge amounts of pressure on local authorities to freeze it this year, it appears their hands are practically tied on the matter.

The cost of finding out what the Borough wants would still be there whether they hired a 3rd party or not as it would take council staff and councillors time to do this. If the council did this research themselves I could see people arguing that it was biased. It's hard to please everbody. £90 is about 50 properties council tac contribution, so peanuts in the grand scheme of things.

I P Freely
01/03/2012 at 12:36

If your against the regeneration of Wokingham town centre, would do you propose? If you are against making £900k worth of savings from the waste collection, what would you do differently?

I P - forgive me for responding to your comment aimed at Matthew, but there are many alternatives to the proposed budgets. I get sick of politicians saying in the media 'it's clear, we must do this, there's no choice' - there are always choices.

One way of the council meeting its budget is to raise council tax by the standard annual amount. A raise of 2.5% this year and again next year would by no means be cause for celebration - but the alternative route of freezing it for a year and then having to raise it by 5+% the following year doesn't sound good to me and I suspect will happen.

The regeneration is another example; the council is pledging £37-million-odd into the project, setting-up a new company (which must incur costs, and surely pay capital gains tax(?)), and letting a lot of the town centre shops on short-term leases (which don't provide us with as much income as 'proper' and longer leases). Perhaps at a time when so many shops are closing every day nationally and our budgets are being tightened, it is not the time to take this massive project on (and then say that the deadline of 2016 is 'not set in stone'!!!) - having taken it out of the hands of the private developer who was previously bearing the responsibility for it anyway!

As reported on this website, the council recently wasted £90,000 on a 3rd-party company, in order to figure out what Wokingham needs and what should be done (which is surely the primary responsibility of our council and elected councillors, not something to be outsourced at a cost); http://www.getwokingham.co.uk/news/s/2108918_90000_to_discover_obvious_priorities_for_towns_new_vision

I certainly wouldn't describe taking a service (waste) out of the council-tax-funded services, start charging for it, and then call it 'a saving'. It's a stealth tax. For me, it's the same in principle as the council deciding that council tax no longer pays to keep the street lights on and presents me with a new bill for the service instead.

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
01/03/2012 at 11:03

Matthew - Is it possible to view your Labour alternative Wokingham budget? And the same with the Lib Dems. I assume that the opposition provide reports on how they would spend the money differently and deliver the same savings? Most of the opposition comments have been quite vague so far. If your against the regeneration of Wokingham town centre, would do you propose? If you are against making £900k worth of savings from the waste collection, what would you do differently?

I P Freely
01/03/2012 at 09:47

Agreed Matthew, and I've seen a big chunk of it happen first-hand.

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
01/03/2012 at 09:36

Damiano Tommassi is right, if they can save £4.5m so easily, why have they been wasting such a sum previously?

Sadly, I think we know where the money for these cuts will come from. The council have made clear that they intend to cut back all services, and sell off as much as they can. From the flogging off of the libraries, shrouded in complete secrecy, to the ridiculous abolition of public toilets, it's clear that services don't matter to the council.

Council tax remains low, but we are having to pay extra for waste disposal services, so its clear that all that is happening is that rather than increasing tax up front, we have sneaky charges levelled on services previously included in what we paid.

If we had a few less grand ideological projects (i.e. a massive, expensive regeneration project which is apparently not guaranteed to run to time or even happen) and a little more focus on good local governance from the council, think how much better off we might be.

Matthew S. Dent, Wargrave
01/03/2012 at 08:00

Will that £37m buy Wokingham a public toilet or will the new Town centre just smell like one?

Anthony Vick
29/02/2012 at 20:12

...and £96,000,000 to buy the council housing stock

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
29/02/2012 at 09:36

“Under this Conservative administration and our Transformation programme we have saved some £16 million over the last four years and the budget we are proposing will save a further £4.5 million next year.” - but you've been running the council since 2002, so another way to put it is that you've been wasting more than £4.5m/year for ten years.