Budget Meeting at Leeds City Council

Wednesday saw the debate to set a budget for Leeds City Council. The debate, that spanned over 3 hours, is often an opportunity for different parties to put alternative budgets to that proposed by the present Administration. Certainly the Labour Party always proposes an alternative as do the Greens. My own view is that it is purely a piece of political theatre and spent my allotted time discussing the main budget proposal and its impact on Morley. Both the Labour and Green budgets agree with the Administrations main proposals and they offer alleged alternatives amounting to less that 0.1% of the total budget so there is a great deal of consensus on budget priorities.

The main headlines for the budget are a 2.5% increase in Council tax levels - the lowest since the council tax was introduced with extra money going into Children's Services (additional social workers to keep children safe and prevent an Edlington event) and more into Adult Services (which means Morley Elderly Action are to get a substantial financial increase in this years budget.) The Morley Borough Independents backed this budget which brought extra money into Morley including the cash for the Morley Bottoms Regeneration Scheme, the Corporation Street affordable housing and the cash for the new Sports Centre and to improve our parks and playgrounds. Strangely enough our no show Nazi Cllr Chris Beverley voted against the budget and presumably doesn't support this spending across the Morley area. The bizarre things is that he gloats about his decision not withstanding it would mean reducing policing levels across Morley and the withdrawal of Morley CCTV schemes if the budget was not agreed!

Of course Cllr Beverley has little interest in Morley matters and sees his role as promoting the BNP national line and took the opportunity to do so in a later debate. The debate was suppose to be about protecting greenfield sites and what we could do to bring more affordable homes to local residents on brownfield previously developed sites. Cllr Beverley used the opportunity - not to defend the seven Morley greenfield sites under threat of development - but to promote BNP national policy on immigration. Its clear where his priorities lie while the MBIs backed a resolutions which will keep these greenfield sites green.

But perhaps the funniest thing at full Council was Cllr Beverley's refusal to admit to twittering during the Full council meeting. Twittering is a process where people connect to the Internet and leave short comments for others to read. Cllr Beverley was caught twittering during the full debate - clearly ignoring what other people were saying - smugly boasting about promoting BNP national policy. At the end of the meeting he was given an opportunity to admit to this activity and - like the spineless individuals the BNP are - refused to tell the truth! Unfortunately a Labour Councillor - who had also been undertaking the same activity - admitted his guilt - what an interesting contrast!

The budget is an interesting one and will mean we have a difficult financial settlement to cope with. It will not be the last and future settlements may prove even more challenging!