CHESHIRE West and Chester Council’s budget consultation is a complete farce.
Just days after the consultation closed, and before there had been any analysis of people’s views, the council leadership announces its intention to freeze council tax for two years.
With inflation running at over two per cent this amounts to a voluntary budget cut of £2.75m in the first year, and £5.5m in the second year, based on the council’s ability to increase the council tax by up to two per cent without the requirement to hold a referendum.
Presumably this is on top of the £40m cuts they have set about implementing?
If the council were serious about consultation, why did they not offer council tax payers the chance to express a view as to whether this money might be spent on retaining some of the services that the council is intent on cutting?
No, the council would never offer anything that could be called meaningful consultation, as anyone who watched the webcast of their one consultation meeting attended by an invited audience, would know. Here the viewing public were invited to vote on meaningless alternatives, usually along the lines of ‘Do you want us to carry on wasting your money, or do you want us to be more efficient?’ This was interspersed by interviews with council officers, who seemed happy to make the proposals of the ruling Conservatives sound palatable. So if anyone did submit comments about the budget proposals don’t hold your breath for any sort of concrete or specific response.
Certainly the two-year council tax freeze is not up for discussion.
Ray McHale Ellesmere Port
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