Northamptonshire County council approves £28 million of budget savings
BUDGET savings of £28 million, including the controversial scrapping of a £500,000 fund to provide Police Community Support Officers, have been approved by councillors.
During a marathon, six hour meeting at County Hall yesterday, the Conservative leaders of Northamptonshire County Council approved their money saving plans.
The move will mean almost 300 council jobs will be cut, charges for adult social care will rise, £500,000 will be taken away from children’s centres and the council will take away the money it currently gives to fund Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs).
The leaders of the council defended the cut to PCSO funding, arguing the police authority should foot the bill, but opposition leaders and anti-cuts demonstrators condemned the party for going back on their 2009 election pledge to “provide £500,000 per annum for extra PCSOs”.
The leader of the opposition, Councillor Brendan Glynane (Lib Dem, Delapre) said: “They’re failing to support the people of Northamptonshire by failing to support visible policing and they’ve now lost the right to call themselves ‘the party of law and order’.
“They were elected on a promise of providing more visible policing. They had the opportunity to do that, but they’ve failed.”
He was backed by the deputy leader of the Labour group, Councillor Mark Bullock (Lab, Corby Central) who added: “The Conservatives promised the community they would fund PCSOs and they’ve let them down.”
Instead of providing £500,000 for PCSOs, the county council will give the police £300,001 to help tackle violent crime.
The leader of the authority, Councillor Jim Harker (Con, Kettering Rural) said: “The hard fact is that crime prevention is the responsibility of the police and our reduced reserves don’t allow us to carry on with our funding indefinitely.”
The cabinet member for finance, Councillor Bill Parker (Con, Brambleside) added: “The money we’re giving the police to tackle violent crime will allow the police authority to spend a similar amount on front-line policing. This really is a win, win for everyone in Northamptonshire.”
He also said the council’s decision not to increase council tax would be welcomed by residents, adding: “I’m sure Northamptonshire residents will be grateful that more money will be staying in their pockets.
“Not only does this help reduce the burden on household budgets, it also supports our local economy.”
Members of Conservative-led Northampton Borough Council are due to approve their budget next week. Their plans also include proposals to cut £100,000 of funding for PCSOs.
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Comments
There are 17 comments to this article
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TeddyMcnabb
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 11:37 PMTony [14] tweeted and facebooked, a story of the jolly jaunters and their local council pravda press.
pratchett
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 09:23 PMthe tax might not be going up but you get less and less for your money.its like when cadburys cut the size of a choccie bar but keep price the same!
expo65
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 08:38 PMEvery year same old thing - year in year out , cuts in services , job cuts , and all talk back ,from all political parties , trying to show we could have done better. All of them are same with hidden political agenda. When in power , nothing changes , nothing gets to the satisfaction of the electorate who voted , and then now we will receive big hefty bills , even though the present dear leader insists there will be no increase , but already we are struggling to pay the alreasdy levied charges , so for a working person who is just managing to meet ends , all this barking does not matter, what ever or how ever we protestsnothing is going to change. But feel the power within should have audited NO JOBS , which this this and NCC seem to be holding on with. If they had actually taken the care to check out the glorified, jobs , some at more then 40k , we could have easily saved our PCSO's and other children centres. But NO , the whole old boy net work system stinks , and there seems to be no end to recruitment of high salary jobs , all in the soddy name of restructures , and to meet demands of new way of delivery of services. The big issue is the most abused WORKING FROM HOME policy, which is encourged and left unchecked , where staff members gain extra days , no wonder there is no productivity , and we all end up paying this hefty council tax , and from top to bottom enjoy unqualified perks , which a private company would never allow , even if allowed , would be audited and monitored, but within councils , this ia a wide abused practice .We hope by next budget , councils will look into finer innner workings , then really bug us with more cuts. 300 job cuts mentioned will like everything else disappera within system, there is always a huge cry to start with and every thing will be forgotten , and no real job losses , all paper losses. Finally in good old days people really used to protest and got some action , but now people just do not care , nor have time or will , and we all pay up , easy money for councils , and coucils do not have to earn , nor sell to make it money, and with ready made money , there is no sense of real producitvity , nor value , and culture of waste , and easy job life will never change. JUST WAIT 2013-14 IS GOING TO SEE BIG , BIG , RISE , AND WE ALL ARE GOING TO PAY FOR IT , BUT NO JOBS WILL BE LAUGHING ALL THE WAY TO A LIFE TIME HOLIDAY WITH THE COUNCILS. FED UP ?
Tony Clarke
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 08:29 PMI must have been at the wrong meeting? If you want the real story just click here and wonder why you had to do so to find out? http:tonyclarkeindependent.blogspot.com201202canne-you-believe-it.html
Steeve
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 06:09 PM@Adams Rant. Agreed. Whilst it is important for all individually affected groups and users of services to be making their voices heard, such as the excellent demonstration last week by mothers against the withdrawal of PCT funding for maternity services, even if some concessions are won, this will only be a case of "robbing Peter to pay Paul" and will not increase the total amount of money for services. Are you involved in any campaigns locally?
Common sense
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 05:39 PMMcNabb--you display all the manners and thought process of someone in need of some help. Didn't know there was such a thing as donkey porn--perhaps its the company I keep--which excludes you thank god! Such waffle!
lady muck
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 05:03 PMSteve...what...nationalise ALL the banks ? How will this be done ? Will the country simply buy the remaining shares ? How will this help us ? More likely to mean that no bank staff will ever be redundant and they will be reduced to a status of state employees unsackable, fully unionised and dragging the country even further down.
TeddyMcnabb
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 04:29 PMThe truth about ALL of the three main parties who control councils is that they are ALL cutting left, right and centre, for the labour party, pop over to Ed Millilbands Doncaster and read all about it there, Clegg,s sheffield is labour controlled, so hop over to Hull where the libdems are in control and watch them swing the axe. Speaking of cleggs sheffield, the labour controlled council there, 45,000 council housing tenants have voted by a whopping 90% to being it back in -house, they have had enough of ALMO and will have even less of housing associations, THE 3 parties at N.B.C. should take note!
TeddyMcnabb
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 04:07 PMCommon Sense i could imagine donkey porn would be more interesting than what you scribble. Speaking of bankers on here, BBC reporter [in their usual "unbiased" way] smith today described bankers bonuses as "hardly life changing" well how true eh!
Common sense
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 03:34 PMTerry Mac---I'm a great believer in giving the young leader of NBC a chance to prove his worth--decades of past Councillors and Leaders have messed it up--age and experience don't always prove best. Some people here have no sense of humour and need to get a life!
Reverend
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 03:03 PMWhoa! A ninja in a wheelchair! Hilarious.
Adams RANT
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 02:45 PMSTEVE … Your comments are bang on, but the likes of the decision makes don’t wish to hear the facts, they are quite content to let each group make its case as to why its service is of more value than someone else’s. The only call that can unite us is to say (and mean it) no cuts to our services
Steeve
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 12:52 PM@Common sense I make no apologies for the reference to bankers. Although there are undoubtedly some councillors due to their ideological dogma who would be rubbing their hands together in glee at any opportunity to reduce public services whatever the situation, these cuts come on the back of a 28% reduction in funding from central government. This amount has not been cut because these services are not needed anymore. It is simply an arbitrary figure that has been selected by the ConDem coalition to pay precisely for the deficit which was not caused by ordinary working people but by big business and the bankers. The £83 billion worth of cuts nationally could easily be avoided by collecting the £120 billion of unpaid, avoided and evaded tax each year by the super-rich and large corporations. Further tens of billions could be collected by closing tax loopholes exploited by the same people and companies. I, personally, would go even further and say that the banks should be nationalised under genuine workers' control so that the profits can be used for the benefit of the majority in society, rather than as, at present, for a tiny minority. The government is playing a classic "divide and rule" game, attempting to pit workers against each other by saying "look at those benefit scroungersunemployed layaboutsferal youthidle disabled, it's all their fault" to deflect the blame from the inability of capitalism to provide the most basic of services for an increasing section of society both in the UK and world-wide. I'm sorry if you find that boring. Maybe one day you will get the chance to truly live life on the edge as the government is forcing more and more working people to do, whilst allowing their mates in big business to simultaneously increase their profits and enjoy pay rises of 49%.
TeddyMcnabb
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 10:23 AMFruitcake,..Common sense is a great fanof the young leader at N.B.C, the same young leader stormed out off the county council yesterday after being ignored twice to speak,by the tory chairman, the Chron & Echo tweeted , but havent reported it here..As for his mocking of the disabled it is this type of scum that has led to an 20% increase in disability hate crime.
Fruitcake
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 10:12 AMCommon sense - poking fun at the disabled actually shows your level of intellectual capacity.
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