Saturday, January 26, 2008

Value For Money For Southampton

Yesterday Southampton Conservatives released details of budget proposals for the city council for the coming year.
Despite the chronic underfunding of Southampton by the government the Conservatives are keeping our promise to deliver a real terms reduction in council tax.

A Fair Deal for the Taxpayer

Conservatives are proposing the lowest council tax increase in Southampton's history as a unitary council authority at 2.99%. This is being achieved against the backdrop of real terms cuts in funding for Southampton from the government and through much greater local efficiency.

A fair deal for pensioners

Proposals by the Conservatives include a renewed commitment to introduce a 10% discount for households of over 65. In the past ten years council tax has more than doubled under Labour and those on the basic state pension are increasingly finding their real incomes being eroded.

Backing the Police

Conservatives are pushing ahead with plans to scrap council tax for special constables in the city. Since 1997 the numbers of specials has halved. Locally the police have welcomed and backed the move as means for putting more community police on the streets and cutting crime in the city.

A fair deal for Bus Users

Budget proposals include the introduction of a local concessionary bus fares scheme for over 60s and disabled people to cover the reductions in eligibility and travel times in the government's national concessionary scheme. Click HERE for further details.

Listening to residents

Revised budget proposals follow three months of consultation and discussions with residents and community groups. In fact over 1000 people responded to the consultation and the vast majority of their concerns have been addressed in revised proposals.

More money to vital services

This includes:
  • An extra £745k pa for road repairs
  • An extra £1.2m pa for adult care
  • Extra money supporting children in care and to support foster carers
  • Extra local money to support people with alcohol problems
  • Additional funds to support more sport in schools
  • More support to residents' associations
  • A range of measures to improve the local environment, recycling and energy efficiency
  • More money to reduce youth offending in the city
Full details of Conservative budget proposals can be found HERE.

1 comment:

Stephen Phillips said...

None of these good things will happen now we have Labour/LibDems running the Council.

Thankfully we have an election in a few months so they can be removed.

I was sorry to hear about the Tories losing control over the Council.