Liberal Democrat members of Warwickshire County Council have expressed disappointment at the announcements by the County’s Conservative Leader on Thursday on the future shape of the Council, and how it should address budget cuts of £92 million over the next four years.

They are critical of the Conservative administration for sitting on the issue for months since the elections in May, rather than recognising the realities of a no overall control council and engaging in the earliest possible dialogue and debate with the other political groups.

Cllr Jerry Roodhouse (Rugby Eastlands & Hillmorton), Lib Dem group leader, said:

“We need to engage with communities across Warwickshire, and work together across political divides, if we are to find the way forward to address this massive financial challenge which can command the widest possible understanding and support. Liberal Democrats will be pro-active in making sure this happens.”

The Lib Dems have grave concerns about the outline £92 million savings plan published by the Conservatives, in particular disproportionately large cuts in vital children’s services such as Early Intervention and Learning & Achievement.

In the critical areas of health and adult social services, the Lib Dems will be pushing for accelerated integration of NHS and council resources and budgets, with the new NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups stepping up to the mark and working seamlessly with the County Council to deliver the best possible outcomes for vulnerable and dependent people.

The Lib Dem county group’s budget team will be working hard over the coming months with officers to establish clear priorities for future spending and to minimise adverse impacts on vulnerable groups. Final decisions on the County Council’s budget for the next four years will be taken by all elected members at the Full Council meeting on 6^th February 2014.

Following today’s agreement by Warwickshire’s Conservative Cabinet to the recommendations on the future of Children’s Centres, Liberal Democrat and Labour members have combined to “call in” the decision. This means that the Cabinet’s decision cannot be implemented immediately, but will go for further review at a special meeting of the Children’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee to be arranged.

Cllr John Whitehouse (Kenilworth Abbey), Liberal Democrats spokesperson for Children & Young People, said:-
“There were many concerns expressed by members during today’s meeting. in particular that the ‘Option 1’ now being recommended for implementation differed significantly from the version that had been in the consultation which ended on 27th August. There were also a number of important questions which received inadequate answers on the day.”

Cllr Jerry Roodhouse (Rugby Eastlands & Hillmorton) said:
“This is a vitally important decision, which the Council needs to ensure it gets right. The referral back to the Overview & Scrutiny Committee will provide another opportunity to ensure it does so.”

Another Cabinet item on changes to the Integrated Disability Service was also called in by members after the meeting, and will be referred back to Overview & Scrutiny also.

Liberal Democrats have expressed their disgust at a press release about the future of Children’s Centres issued today on behalf of Warwickshire Conservatives. The Tory document attacked Liberal Democrat and Labour members of the County Council’s Children & Young People Overview & Scrutiny Committee for not voting in support of Option 1 in the consultation document, and thus “letting down” Warwickshire parents.

Cllr John Whitehouse (Kenilworth Abbey), Liberal Democrats spokesperson for Children & Young People, said:-

“The Tories are playing politics with the futures of Warwickshire’s children, which is reprehensible behaviour. Councillor Heather Timms, as the cabinet member responsible, should be concentrating her energies on finding a sustainable future for our Children’s Centres, not indulging in such antics.”

Liberal Democrat councillors Clive Rickhards (Studley) and Jerry Roodhouse (Rugby Eastlands & Hillmorton) were at the Overview & Scrutiny Committee meeting. Cllr Rickhards said:

“All members of the committee made clear they objected to the closure of any Children’s Centre, but opposition members were not prepared to support Option 1 outright given there remained a lot of unanswered questions about the impact of the proposed funding cuts, redundancy implications, governance arrangements and service delivery outcomes.”

Cllr Roodhouse said:

“It’s not the job of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee to do the Cabinet’s work for them. It is the Conservative administration which has proposed these massive funding cuts to Children’s Centre budgets for next financial year, and has set a very tight timetable for consultation and decision making.”

Liberal Democrats believe that our Children’s Centres are priceless assets, but do not believe that any of the current options on the table have been developed sufficiently to guarantee a sustainable future for the 39 current centres.

It’s up to the Conservative Cabinet on the 12^th September to decide how it will respond to the consultation, and to set out their plans for the future of Warwickshire’s Children’s Centres. Once these have been published, Liberal Democrats will decide how to respond, and will act accordingly.

Note:

The minutes of the two special meetings of the Children’s & Young People Overview & Scrutiny Committee, held on 14^th August & 23^rd August 2013, can be found at:-

http://goo.gl/6GNFQL

http://goo.gl/iUFBdp

Liberal Democrat county councillors will vote against a Labour group motion on Street Lighting at tomorrow’s meeting of Warwickshire County Council. The Labour motion seeks to reverse the previous Council decision on part-night street lighting, “in the interests of the personal safety of all Warwickshire residents”.

Cllr John Whitehouse (Kenilworth Abbey), Communities lead scrutiny member for the Liberal Democrat group, said:

“We’ve been totally consistent on this policy of part-night street lighting right from the beginning – we support it in principle, as an important contribution to achieving financial savings, and to help reduce energy consumption. However, we’ve called for an early evidence-based review by the County Council of how it has worked out in practice, and what problems if any it has caused. The review should take evidence from the Police and other emergency services. If the personal safety of Warwickshire residents has been adversely affected, then clearly that would be an issue – but currently there is no evidence to confirm this.

“We wanted the review to start in May, but in a Council vote in February both Conservatives and Labour voted to oppose this. At tomorrow’s Council meeting we shall be pressing the Portfolio Holder to commit to carrying out the review, and bringing a report back to the Council at the earliest possible opportunity.

“Labour’s motion tomorrow is a purely political gesture. They have presented no evidence to support it, nor have they said what cuts they would make elsewhere in the Council’s budget to recoup the £500,000 annual savings that switching off the lights is giving.”

Welcome to the new web site of the Liberal Democrat group of members on Warwickshire County Council.

We shall be using the web site to post press releases from the County Group, and other items of news and public interest.