Stockport yesterday passed it’s budget for the next financial year – 2011/12. The budget sees us making just over £16 million of savings. Unlike some other councils, we’ve worked hard to smooth out the impact of the cuts so they’re spread more evenly and not hitting us in the first year. That gives us time to find other ways to save money.

We’ve known big cuts were coming since October 2009 – well before the General Election. I can remember, just a few weeks after being elected, coming to a meeting where we were given best and worst case projections on savings we’d have to make over the next few years. The worst case option then was for us to have to save over £18 million in 2011/12, so it’s not quite as bad as we’d feared. It’s very clear that whichever party had won last year’s General Election, big cuts were on the way.

We – the Lib Dem Council Executive, officers and the Lib Dem group – have worked very hard to minimise the impact of the cuts and to protect the most vulnerable in our communities, unlike some councils, which seem to have taken a slash-and-burn approach to make a political point. But it would be daft to suggest we could cut £16 million with no effect – especially as Stockport was already a low-spending and efficient council.

Here are some of the headline items:

• Council tax frozen
• No libraries closing, no library opening hours reduced
• More public toilets: the community toilet scheme means an increase from 15 to 50 public toilets across Stockport, plus those in parks and libraries.
• No increase in car parking charges.  Free evening and Sunday parking preserved.
• We’ve cut Children’s Services by a little under 8% (compared to 26% in Manchester).  The youth service and careers provision is being reorganised from a universal service to a more targeted one.  We believe this can be achieved without harm to the young people.  There’s no change to Surestart or Children’s Centres.
• Council charges have been frozen across the board (except for a very few which were running at a loss).  In Manchester, charges have been increased, costing residents more.
• Adult Services has been cut by under 7% (compared to 21% in Manchester)
• Overall the Council will lose about 285 Full Time Equivalent staff (compared to 2000 in Manchester).  As far as possible, this is being done by voluntary redundancy and by not filling posts that were already vacant.  We don’t yet know if any compulsory redundancies will be needed.

Conservative and Labour response

As I mentioned before, we’ve known these cuts were coming for well over a year. Throughout that time, there have been numerous opportunities for the other parties to put forward their suggestions of where cuts and savings could be made. They’ve had a great deal of time to come up with their own alternatives.

From Labour – nothing. No ideas, no suggestions, no alternative budget or even amendments. Nothing over sixteen months. They spent last night attacking the need for cuts nationally and then opposed the budget.

The Conservatives made one or two small suggestions, adding up to about £100,000 – better than nothing, but not a great help when you’re trying to find savings of over £16 million. They’ve also been proposing spending even more in their leaflets. For example, they’ve opposed the Council buying Grand Central Leisure in the town centre – a purchase that’s already bringing in half a million pounds a year into the coffers.

Like Labour, the Conservatives have not engaged over 16 months and, last night, offered no alternative budget, no amendments and no ideas.

Moving forward

This was a good and responsible budget in a very difficult time. It’s not what any of us came into politics to do, but to not find the savings – nationally or locally – would only result in even worse problems in a few years and that would be irresponsible, to say the least. Instead of money going to schools, hospitals and the police it would be going to foreign bankers to cover our debt interest payments.

Next year we’ll need to save another £16 million, and the work on that has already started.

Once again, the ruling Lib Dem group has invited Labour and the Conservatives to get involved in that process and throw their ideas into the mix for the benefit of Stockport. We’ll have to see if they take up the offer this time.