Council Budget decisions



They didn't unfortunately



As below, the Council Budget meeting yesterday was memorable for many reasons, some good, some bad. It was my first Labour Budget as Finance spokesperson and the first time in living memory that our budget was supported by the Conservatives and the Greens (with minor adjustments). But it also saw the LibDem/SNP Administration take the decision to close Blindcraft making it a very sad day for the city indeed (more details as reported by the Evening News here ). It also saw £45m worth of savings implemented including significant cuts to front line services, including schools, libraries, refuse collection and the voluntary sector. The full list of cuts can be viewed here . Our proposal for no compulsory redundancies was also rejected and I'm seriously worried that we could now see P45s used as a blunt instrument to achieve the savings targets. As reported earlier in the week we published our budget proposals a good week ahead of the meeting to allow for a bit of public debate around the issues and hopefully encourage the Administration to be a bit more open about their plans. It didn't work. Our budget amendment and spreadsheet are available on these links and I can email more background information to anyone who's particulary interested in the fine detail.