At tomorrow’s annual meeting of Warwickshire County Council, the Liberal Democrat group will be tabling the following resolution:-

“This Council believes that the current size of Cabinet should be reduced in line with the savings being made across all council services, and that it being constituted of members from a single political group does not serve the best interests of Warwickshire residents.

The Council calls on the Leader to review whether it is appropriate to establish a Cabinet consisting of seven members which reflects the political make-up of the County Council in accordance with the proportionality rules, and to report back at the next meeting of the Full County Council.”

Cllr Jerry Roodhouse, Lib Dem Group Leader, said:-

“We have consistently called for a streamlined County Council Cabinet structure over recent years, most recently in the budget debate in February, and we do so again.

“A Cabinet of nine members is too large when we have reduced the number of senior directors from nine to five in recent years, and are seeking to further rationalise management structures. Elected members should lead from the front on this.

“We believe that a politically-balanced Cabinet would command greater support from elected members, and from the electorate in general, to help push through the Council’s very difficult agenda of change over the next four years (the One Organisational Plan).”

The Liberal Democrats group on Warwickshire County Council want early involvement of voluntary organisations in the delivery of the council’s “One Organisational Plan”, the blueprint for the restructuring of county services to help achieve its £92 million savings plan.

They believe that innovative new ways of working are achievable, but only if the voluntary sector is engaged early and given the time to explore the feasibility of options prior to the prescriptive timescales of formal consultations and commissioning processes.

Lib Dem group leader Cllr Jerry Roodhouse has put forward the following recommendations to senior council officers and the leaders of the other political groups on the council:-

1. A version of the One Organisational Plan with accompanying explanation should be circulated to the voluntary sector so they can understand the vision and thinking behind the Plan, and made available on the Council website.
2. A web cast/You Tube film aimed at this audience should be cascaded to all voluntary organisations via the Warwickshire CAVA weekly emails, to help explain and introduce the Plan.
3. A seminar should be held for leaders of the sector to explain how the Plan will be enacted and how/when they will have the opportunity to participate.
4. Commissioning and decommissioning timetables should be shared with the sector at the earliest opportunity, with additional lead in times built in for organisations to explore possible joint or cooperative working, or for new social enterprises or other entities to be formed and ready to submit tenders.

Cllr Roodhouse said: “These suggestions aren’t costly, but would protect against the voluntary sector feeling shut out and alienated and acknowledge the key role they will play in future service delivery.”

Cllr Nicola Davies, Lib Dem spokesperson on the Corporate Services Overview & Scrutiny Committee, has led the development of these ideas. She said: “It’s important we get this right. Our budget proposals made it clear that the voluntary sector had a lot to offer. We must ensure early engagement with the sector, and not be seen to be ‘throwing the baby out with the bath water’ as we implement restructuring plans.”

A report setting out reporting arrangements for the One Organisational Plan will be presented to the 5th June meeting of WCC’s Cabinet.

A ‘value for money’ report from the Audit Commission dated 27th February
highlights that, ‘high central costs in some councils need greater
scrutiny,’ and identifies Warwickshire County Council as one of the worst
offenders.

Using the latest available data, from 2012/13, the Audit Commission
analyses and then compares data across all the country’s county councils.

Warwickshire’s spend on central costs is 11.2% of its total spending,
nearly double the national average of 6.1%, putting it in the worst 5% of
county councils in the country.

County Councillor Kate Rolfe (Lib Dem, Stratford South) will be asking the
following question at the county council meeting on March 25th:

‘In its latest value for money report the Audit Commission identifies
Warwickshire County Council as one of the highest spenders in the country
– in the worst 5% – in the proportion of spending that goes on management
and back office services.

Will the Leader please explain why Warwickshire’s costs in this area are
so high and what she intends to do to remedy the situation?’

Cllr Rolfe commented, ‘This is not what council taxpayers want their
money spent on. It should be going on front line services, not on
management. I’m determined to find out what’s behind this, but I suspect
part of the reason may be that Warwickshire is one of the smallest
counties, which means that its fixed central costs are relatively high.

If this is part of the reason then it’s all the more reason for the
Conservatives to start taking more seriously Lib Dem proposals about
sharing services with other councils and public bodies.

We’ve been saying for a long time that costs are too high. It looks as
though the Audit Commission agrees with us so I hope at long last we can
see some action from the Conservatives on this to deliver better value
for money for local residents’.

Notes:

To see the Audit Commission’s report and data, go to:

http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/information-and-analysis/value-for-mone
y-briefings-2/

and click on ‘value for money profiles’ (underlined in the main body of
the text).

Then go to ‘select a council’ on the left hand side of the page:
select Warwickshire County Council from the table and confirm the
selection in the top box.
Select ‘county councils’ and confirm in the box labelled ‘Find and
highlight a comparison group’.

This will produce a table called ‘overview’.

Then click on the box at the top of the page labelled ‘financial
resilience’.

This produces another analysis, included in which is ‘Spend on management
and support (back office) services as a proportion of total service spend’
and which shows that amongst the country’s county councils Warwickshire
is in the highest 5%.

Liberal Democrats have welcomed the outcome of the public interest debate at yesterday’s County Council meeting, where councillors decided by an overwhelming margin to pursue further the opportunities for unitary local government across Warwickshire. All Lib Dem county councillors present voted for the motion, and also voted to defeat a Labour amendment which called for no further action to be taken.

The debate was initiated by the Lib Dems last October, when the County Group Leader Cllr Jerry Roodhouse wrote to the other group leaders calling for an open and honest discussion of the matter.

Yesterday’s debate attracted a wide range of public speakers to participate, including business representatives and town and parish councillors, almost all of whom were in favour of the unitary idea being explored further. Regrettably, with one exception the leaders of the district and borough councils in Warwickshire chose not to attend.

As the review now moves forward, Lib Dems call on all parties to put aside tribal differences and vested interests, and to consider the evidence for and against unitary local government on its merits. We believe that the final decision must rest with the people of Warwickshire through a referendum.

The Liberal Democrat Group on Warwickshire County Council has voted this evening to support a compromise budget put forward by the minority Conservative administration, after winning major concessions during  a nine hour meeting. This enabled the Council finally to set its four year budget, which was approved by 37 votes to 24.

Earlier in the day, separate budget resolutions from the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrat Groups, and an amendment from the Greens, had all been defeated, meaning that at least two of the main groups would need to reach a compromise before the Council could set its budget. All parties’ proposals were based on a council tax increase of 1.99% a year, and all set out to achieve total savings of £92 million (26%) over a four year period. Where they differed was in the detailed proposals underneath the headline figures.

Cllr Jerry Roodhouse, Lib Dem Group Leader, said:

“It was clear from the outset that Labour was not interested in reaching an agreement with us or the Conservatives. There were many aspects of the Labour budget that we found unacceptable, in particular their plan to close Household Waste Recycling Centres in the places like Kenilworth or Shipston, and the major cut they proposed in highway maintenance.

“We entered the negotiations with the Conservatives with some very clear ‘red line’ issues on the table, and were pleased that we were able to achieve over 90% of our proposals.

“In particular, we have protected school crossing patrols, secured a major new investment of £2.5 million in Safer Routes to School and School Safety Zones, and ensured that there will be no further library closures. We’ve removed any further cuts to children’s centre budgets for at least three years, and also removed a planned first year cut in the Supporting People programme. We’ve won a £1 million investment in energy efficient LED street lighting to accelerate the replacement programme. We’ve achieved greater ongoing capacity for the voluntary sector, and a £50,000 cut in members’ expenses and catering costs.

“Finally, we’ve secured binding commitments to restructure the senior management of the Council in the medium term, and to cut costs of member expenses and catering.

“These are major changes to the budget put forward by the Conservatives, which justified the Lib Dems giving the compromise budget our full support rather than voting against or abstaining. The final budget passed this evening is very different from the one originally put forward by the Conservatives, and much better for the people of Warwickshire.”

Notes:

The main changes between the agreed budget and the original Conservative proposal are:-

• No cuts to the Supporting People Programme in 2014/15, allowing time for full planning and consultation of medium-term changes.
• £2.5 million investment over three years in new Safer Routes to School and 20 mph School Safety Zone schemes, to ensure that children’s safety on their way to and from school is secured by road engineering solutions before cuts in school transport costs are implemented.
• Retention of a £200,000 a year budget to support school crossing supervisors at those locations where children’s safety cannot be achieved by road engineering measures.
• No further cuts to Children’s Centre budgets for at least three years, with a commitment for a full business case before any savings based on the development of multi-agency Family Centres are implemented.
• No further planned library closures, compared with the original Conservative plan to close nine of the remaining seventeen council-run libraries.
• No cuts in support to communities and community organisations in 2014/15, and a £300,000 a year reduction in the long terms savings target for this service.
• A new £1 million investment programme in LED street lighting.
• An agreed timetable for the restructuring of the senior management of the Council in the medium term, with specific savings objectives built in.

The Liberal Democrat Group on Warwickshire County Council has released its budget proposals ahead of the Full Council meeting on Thursday 6th February. With the County Council under no overall control since the elections in May 2013, agreement will be needed between at least two of the party groups on the Council before a final budget can command a majority of votes.

The background to this budget and medium term financial plan, covering the four years from 2014/15 to 2017/18, could not have been more difficult, with further drastic cuts in central government funding leading to an overall savings target of £92 million over the four year period. After cuts of £66 million already made by the Conservative-led council over the last three years, there are no easy savings left to be made.

The Lib Dem budget addresses the financial challenge head on, while holding true to the manifesto priorities on which we fought the county elections last May. Our proposals are based on a modest rise of 1.99% over each of the next four years in the level of council tax, equivalent to a rise of 46p a week for a Band D property by 2017/18, to help to protect local public services from the full impact of central government funding cuts.

We plan to invest £2.5 million over two years to re-start the Safer Routes to School programme, and to develop 20 mph School Safety Zones. Lib Dems want to encourage as many children and parents as possible to walk or cycle to school, which is good for health and reduces congestion and air pollution. This will support the reduction in current home to school transport budgets without endangering children’s safety. Crucially, however, Lib Dems pledge to retain school crossing supervisors at all locations where it is not possible to create a safe crossing point by any other means.

We will retain the full current networks of libraries and children’s centres, which we consider vital community assets which should not suffer further cuts and closures. In conjunction with the voluntary sector we will develop a county-wide network of community hubs, to support access to the fullest range of services available and to address causes and effect of poverty in Warwickshire.

We want to accelerate the replacement of street lights with energy-efficient LED bulbs, and plan to invest £1 million in 2014/15 to pump prime an “invest to save” replacement programme, with the savings generated being reinvested back into the programme.
While some savings in the costs of running the county council’s household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) are inevitable, the carefully-costed Lib Dem proposals will retain free access to conveniently located sites for the great majority of residents. We challenge the other political groups to spell out to the public exactly how their much greater cuts will impact on the current nine HWRCs across the county – which will stay open, and which will remain free to use?

Our proposals will commit the council to achieving real savings of £500,000 a year from streamlining and de-layering of management structures.

Cllr Jerry Roodhouse, Lib Dem Group Leader, said:

“The other political groups may talk about cutting management costs, but the Lib Dem budget is the only one which will commit the council to hard financial savings targets. When savings are being forced on vital front-line services for the public, it is essential that the council demonstrates its commitment to streamlining from the top to bottom of the organisation.”

Cllr John Whitehouse, Lib Dem spokesperson for Children & Schools, said:

“We are totally against the plans of the other groups to force further cuts to the county’s funding of children’s centres under the guise of ‘family centres’. While we encourage the use of the centres by health colleagues and other public agencies, this should not be used as an excuse to reduce funding further beyond the £2.3 million cut already in place for 2014/15.

“Massive savings are planned by all the groups in the spiralling costs of home to school transport, including for children with special educational needs, but this must be done sensitively and only after full consultation, and without putting children at risk on their way to and from school. In particular, we reject the plan supported by the other groups to stop funding the costs of school crossing supervisors completely. We have also committed £2.5 million to achieve a step change in safety for children on their way to and from school.”

Notes:
Highlights of the Lib Dem budget proposals are:-

• Spending allocations of £2.5 million for Safer Routes to School/20 mph school safety zones, £1.0 million for LED streetlights, and £100,000 to set up a network of community hubs.
• Reducing the planned cuts in funding to voluntary organisations.
• Reducing the planned cuts in household waste recycling centres by 50% or more compared with the other groups.
• No cuts in highways maintenance budgets.
• A pledge for no further closures of county libraries. The plans supported by the other political groups will decimate the current network.
• No further cuts to youth services.
• No further cuts to children’s centres funding.
• The funding to retain school crossing supervisors at all locations where it is not possible to create a safe crossing point by any other means.
• Savings of £500,000 a year by streamlining management structures and reducing the size of the Cabinet.

 Against the background of the £92 million budget cuts facing Warwickshire County Council, Liberal Democrats are calling for an all-party debate over how local government in the county could be reorganised to give greater value for money to hard pressed council tax payers while preserving vital public services.

As the Leader of Warwickshire County Council embarks on a round of conversations with the public over the savings that have to be made, Liberal Democrats say it is time that all political parties faced up to the opportunities which merging county and district/borough services could bring. Recent examples from across the country are showing that massive savings are already being achieved elsewhere.

Cllr Jerry Roodhouse, Leader of Warwickshire County Council Liberal Democrats, said:

“Following a high level meeting of Liberal Democrats from across the County, I have written to the leaders of the other political groups, calling for the start of an open honest debate over how best to tackle the long term financial pressures facing local government across the County. This must include an objective review of how Warwickshire is governed in the future, and the benefits that could be obtained from moving to some form of unified local authority structure.”

Liberal Democrats hope that the other political groups will engage fully in this debate, which has been in the shadows for too long. The financial pressures facing the public sector are immense, and are not going to go away. The Chancellor of the Exchequer in recent statements has made it clear that austerity will be with us for years to come.  The County Council is also facing a review of its electoral boundaries before the next county elections in 2017.

We believe that the time is right, and that we have a duty to ask the question, and to open up the Unitary Authority question for debate.