Labour Alternative Council Budget Proposal Fails – Hammered By Rival Councillors

Several alternative sections to the Council’s budget was voted down today, with the Labour Group proposals branded as being ‘done on the back of a fag packet’.

The proposals contained in a set of a amendments for the proposed Council budget had the aim of freeing up £257,868 – which the Labour Group said could be spent on adult social care, specifically the respite service.

Currently councillors get free access to parking at the Guildhall, a carpark that is open to the public at weekends and priced at £1 for up to an hour or £1.50 for two hours parking. The new proposal would have seen a charge of £300 a year for Executive Board members and £240 a year brought in for that privilege.

Proposals to also charge a lease fee for the infamous iPad devices they use – plus a return to just eight Executive Board members rather than ten.

The full budget proposal is copied below, as after the meeting we sourced a copy, with councillors themselves only seeing a copy minutes before the start of the meeting. This presentation narked several councillors who said they had not had enough time to consider the plans, let alone be able to understand or scrutinise them.

With the election just weeks away the meeting was a feisty affair with more speakers and passion than we can remember for a long time. Battle lines were thickened with electoral jibes chucked about where previously one may have had a rebuke, but in the free for all anything appeared to go.

Prior to the festivities Council Leader Mark Pritchard provided an introduction of the Budget report, pointing out the long process it had been through including various consultations and previous council meetings.

After the presentation Councillor Dana Davies, the leader of the Labour grouping, stood and presented the ‘Labour Group Alternative Budget’, which consisted of five points (copy below).

Cllr Malcolm King spoke in support saying that the target of budget ‘would provide just over quarter a million to develop services to bring old people home’. However this point was later challenged by Cllr Joan Lowe, who said there was ‘no pressure’ on the respite service and if anyone wished to access the service ‘the funding is there within the budget’, stating it was a case that Cllr King ‘had his lines crossed’.

Cllr Alan Edwards was first to disagree with the proposal based on how it was presented, saying he was an ‘old fashioned councillor’ and he preferred to look through figures properly rather than just being given documents before a meeting.

He said: “There are a few things I can go along with, but to come to a meeting and give a piece of paper and expect us to support it is wrong. I cannot do that.”

Cllr Alun Jenkins gave a passionate wide ranging speech, explaining his quandary between acknowledging the need for a budget, but his unhappiness with the contents and the implications.

Describing the ‘extremely worrying situation’ regarding cuts, giving anecdotal evidence on extra staff stress internal at Wrexham Council due to added workloads.

The process of democracy is also being impeded, with him relaying to the meeting how requests for further details when conducting Scrutiny has not been possible due to staff workloads saying it was a ‘risk’.

He added: “The public do not understand what is going on or the extent of what is going on. When they find they are paying more on council tax, and are having to do more, and receive a lower service I can see why we have an angry public.”

On the topic of the proposed alternative budget, Cllr Jenkins said it is ‘impossible to sit in a meeting like this and have a paper given to us without time to read through it’. However he continued onto acknowledge ‘lots of good things’ in the document, but was unhappy that the contents ‘had not been scrutinised or raised at workshops’.

Cllr Rob Walsh said ‘fair play’ to the alternative budget due to fresh thinking, however although he appreciated the efforts he could not support them as he felt some elements could be ‘self defeating’.

Cllr Derek Wright stated his concerns that if the amended budget was not accepted then the public would think the 52 members would be ‘sat in their bubble’, ‘not understanding the difficulties the people of Wrexham are undergoing’.

Quite an angry Cllr David A Bithell spoke explaining the ‘rigorous process’ the budget had gone through, and then went on the attack over the proposed alternative budget, saying it was ‘playing to the theatre of dreams’ and ‘all about electioneering and putting a budget up thats not sound’.

Cllr Bithell said he felt the 10% savings in the Highways budget would mean a £170k cut, and that he was proud of the work carried out by the current administration, increasing that budget by £2m.

Clr Bithell goes on says alt-budget ‘on back of fag packet’, says Labour are ‘electioneering’ notes £170k cut to Highways budget proposed.

— Wrexham.com (@wrexham) February 22, 2017

The meeting then heard from the legal and finance officers of Wrexham Council regarding their views on the alternative budget, who explained that the final document was presented that morning to them, and as a result there was not time to comply with various procedural elements such as risk assessment analysis or consultation.

Specific issues were raised on the proposal points, such as the idea over reducing Executive Board numbers could in theory have a budget based decision made, however it was ‘speculative’ as the decision on numbers was made elsewhere. Similarly the leasing of iPads may not fit the Independent Renumeration Panel’s guidance that states councillors should not be charged for such things, and therefore a budget decision could clash with that.

Overview for Clrs provided by relevant WCBC Officer on alt-budget TLDR: its not really a goer for a few reasons. Will Clrs take the advice?

— Wrexham.com (@wrexham) February 22, 2017

Cllr Hugh Jones spoke about the process itself, noting that the budget preparation has been underway for ‘several months’, and that presenting an alternative on the day was ‘irresponsible’. Citing High Court action with a London based Local Authority he also said he had ‘real concerns’ over the lack of consultation, and indicated he felt there could be similar issues if taken forward.

We relayed this outside the Chamber, with local MP Ian Lucas enjoying the moment:

Cllr Bob Dutton pointed the finger of blame to Mr Lucas and similar representatives, saying he approved of the ‘laudable aims’ of the increase in budgets for social care with the alternative budget, however challenged the local Labour group to not ‘tinker around the edges’ of the Council’s budget, but to take the issue forward with Welsh Government and UK Government. ”

He said: “We are not just talking about £200k, we are talking about billions. Time is running out, we need real money now, not tinkering around with budgets such as ours.”

Cllr Dana Davies stood again to make a point of order about ‘misinformation’, however that itself was subject to a mini-challenge. Cllr Davies was allowed to finally make her points, explaining that the suggestions in the alternative budget were not out of the blue as they had been raised at previous meetings, and that Officers in Wrexham Council had been liaising on the numbers since January.

Cllr David Kelly took exception to Cllr Wright’s comments earlier in the meeting, giving both barrels to Cllr Wright for suggesting that members were ‘in a bubble’. Cllr Kelly relayed how he interacts with members of the public daily and stated the biggest complaint he gets every week is ‘the state of the roads’ and therefore endorsed Cllr Bithell’s comments earlier.

He also enquired if the alternative budget would see means testing of new councillors, asking if an unemployed person on benefits won a ward election and became a councillor would they have to pay the lease fee for an iPad to do the job.

Cllr Kelly was also critical over the parking proposal, noting he would be shortly qualifying for concessionary travel and could then take opt to take the bus so no savings would be made. He ended by relaying how some councillors car share, with several in one vehicle at times, so would therefore ‘not be a true saving’.

Cllr Geoff Lowe did not hold back either, describing the document as nothing more than an ‘election statement’. Speaking directly to the Labour Group, he added: “God help them if you take power. If this is the best you can do, Wrexham will be in a terrible state.”

At this point Cllr King attempted to make a ‘point of order’, where he explained how he felt such a alternative budget presentation was in keeping with the traditions of how the Council operate, and that the finance officer had been consulted around a month prior.

He said: “To say something is wrong in process is entirely inaccurate, we are following the practice that has been set down by this Council over many years”.

Just been a great Council Classic on points of order, sounds dull, but comedy yawns & tuts as Clr King goes back n forth with Mayor.

— Wrexham.com (@wrexham) February 22, 2017

With murmurs and audible ‘this is not a point of order’ conversations taking place, Cllr Hugh Jones then made a challenge on the point of order, telling the Mayor that Cllr King was responding to issues raised rather than a point of order.

The interchange can be watched below via the power of Council TV – you can of course view the whole debate here.

Unfortunately the webcast does not pick up the flavour of the room itself, with the comedy yawns, amusing audible heckles and the like missed.

The audio does just about catches the response to the Mayor asking ‘Which standing order does this relate to?’, with Cllr King retorting, ‘It er….relates to the issue of standing orders!” which generated further laughter.

Cllr Dutton rounded up the section of the debate with his own point of order, stating: “Can I make a point of order Mr Mayor? Can I move progress?”

The meeting did then progress, ending with a vote on the alternative budget proposals and the main initial budget proposal.

Alt-budget not passed, think 10 in favour, basically every other hand up against it. Prediction normal budget vote will be same, reversed.

— Wrexham.com (@wrexham) February 22, 2017

WCBC Budget passed as predicted. Basically Labour alt-budget addon defeated, and that group did not support the initial budget proposed.

— Wrexham.com (@wrexham) February 22, 2017

With things heating up in the chamber, you will soon get to choose who is sat there for the next few years.

Make sure you are registered to vote, and that your friends and family are also registered.

Finally, on polling day itself make sure you all actually go out and vote!

Top Pic: We had a feeling the meeting would require some popcorn, and girder based pop so we turned up to the all but empty public gallery well supplied.

Below Pics: Copies of the document that was circulated before the meeting.