Lancaster City Council’s leader Stuart Langhorn has warned the area faces more cuts to its services as public finances tighten.
Writing on the new Council leader’s blog, Langhorn notes that nationally the public finances are coming under “extensive scrutiny”.
Despite having already made cuts to its budget over the past two years, with the loss of several services, local government funding looks set to be under even more pressure.
“Whatever the outcome of the next General Election all the majoor political parties agree that there will need to be big cuts to the public finances,” he warns, “and local authorities such as Lancaster City Council will not be immune.”
The Council is already preparing the worst, with a draft budget for 2010/11 due to be discussed in December by the council’s Cabinet, as well as looking at the prospects for the following two years.
“We know we will not be able to continue doing everything we currently do and many of the options we discuss are sure to be controversial,” says Langhorn.
In advance of this, he’s appealing to local people to tell the council what services they feel are important to them, by attending one of a number of workshops that are planned to take place at various venues across the district early next year, or visiting one of a number of town centre exhibitions that are also in the pipeline that will offer a snapshot of Council Services.
The results of the consultation will help the Cabinet recommend a budget to Council.
“The times ahead will not be easy,” says Langhorn, “but I hope that by all working together the council can continue to provide a good range of services.”
• You can register for these workshops by sending an email to consultation@lancaster.gov.uk giving your name and contact details. Alternatively you can contact the council’s consultation officer by telephoning 01524 582268.
Further to this, this Wednesday there will be a motion in Parliament that MPs will debate and vote on regarding the publishing of Local Spending Reports (required under the Sustainable Communities Act) – which will show a breakdown of how all public money is spent.
If this proper breakdown of public spending were published it would help everyone see how much money is spent on things, like road expansion for example, and how little is spent on things like energy efficiency and insulation – ultimately it would help us transition our economy to a truly sustainable one.
(There was a fascinating programme on Radio 5 last night about the incredible waste of regional development money on useless business parks like the one at the motorway junction in Lancaster. Every town has one it seems and also seems that local businesses or anything that makes anything vaguely useful aren't allowed near them see http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/5lr)
A breakdown of all public spending has never been made available before, and when done it will greatly help the Sustainable Communities Act process. It is also a crucial part of accountable and transparent government. The Government promised that the Local Spending Reports would include a breakdown of all public spending. However, Whitehall officials have been dragging their feet and so the work has not yet been done.
The motion on Wednesday is for Early Day Motion 1064 which has cross party support, as follows:
Early Day Motion 1064: Local Spending Reports and the Sustainable Communities Act 2007
Sponsors: David Drew MP, Labour; Nick Hurd MP, Conservative; Julia Goldsworthy MP, Liberal Democrat
“That this House welcomes the provisions of the Sustainable Communities Act 2007 requiring the publication of local spending reports; believes that people have a right to know how their money is spent by public bodies; especially welcomes the assurances given by the Minister for Local Government, the hon. Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth, that the local spending reports will include all public agencies; further welcomes the Minister's assurance that the purpose is to achieve a report that identifies how much will be spent in each area by the authorities; is therefore very alarmed that the consultation now issued on the local spending reports proposes only to include local authorities, including fire authorities and police authorities, and primary care trusts, and to exclude all other public bodies despite the assurances of the Minister; believes it to be unacceptable that this document is now in blatant contravention of the expressed assurances of the Minister; and calls for proper local spending reports to be published, which give effect to those assurances.”
Campaigners are asking people to email, or phone, your MP urgently asking them to ‘Please vote in support of Early Day Motion 1064 on Local Spending Reports at the substantive debate in Parliament this Wednesday.’
This action will only take you a few moments but will be hugely helpful. You can find your MP’s contact details here: findyourmp.parliament.uk