"The lunatics are now in charge of the asylum"

Southampton City Council faces huge challenges in the years ahead. It must save £30M to balance the books next year alone. This is a big task, if at the same time Council Tax is to be kept down for residents who are already struggling with the rising cost of living, and services that are important to local people are to be protected.

The outgoing Conservative Administration understood this and for the past 5 years we have met these challenges head on. In our last 2 years we had to find £45M of savings and we did this whilst freezing council tax and protecting services to residents; like the weekly bin collections, Sure Start centres, libraries, leisure centres, supported bus routes, and at the same we were able to put more money into repairs to the roads and pavements and into looking after at risk children and vulnerable adults. We also kept council job cuts to the minimum and went all out to attract employment and business to the city.

We achieved all of this because we had a clear sense of direction, were prepared to make difficult decisions but be pragmatic where necessary. Most importantly we were honest and we never made a promise that we did not keep.

Labour by contrast, desperate for power, have promised the earth, but have no strategy to deal with the problems ahead. It is sadly inevitable that we now face several years of Labour tax hikes, service cuts and job cuts and that we will see them break one promise after another, letting down voters, users of council services, council staff and even their union backers.

Labour’s very first decision in office was to create, at taxpayers’ expense, extra jobs for their councillors, new committees and chairmanships. At any time this would be unsavoury and nepotistic but in the current financial climate it shows spectacularly bad judgement. It only adds to the financial difficulties of the City Council, meaning that more service cuts, job cuts and tax rises must be endured. But it highlights something even more worrying – that Labour still don’t get it and that they are still in denial about the state of the council’s finances.

Labour need to very quickly wake up, show some political maturity and urgently get in place some sort of plan. They need to start being honest with themselves and more importantly with the residents of Southampton. For the city’s sake I hope that this happens soon.

My fear is that it won’t and that as one constituent of mine put it in an email to me on the day after the elections, “the lunatics are now in charge of the asylum.”

Southampton Conservatives Launch 2012 Manifesto

Southampton’s Conservative Councillors today launched our Manifesto for the local elections in May 2012. We have published the document on our website, (CLICK HERE) and you can also download the document as a pdf. We hope that this will be of interest to you and we would welcome any comments or thoughts that you have. You can feedback to us on this email or via the website.

This election will be crucial for Southampton and residents will have a clear choice about what sort of council they want and what sort of political leadership they want for the city.

Despite the enormous challenge of having to find £75m of savings between 2010 and 2014, Southampton Conservatives are committed to doing everything possible to protect front line services, to keep costs down for local residents and to continue to move the city forward and bring in business and jobs.

We are ensuring that important front line services are maintained, keeping OPEN all our Sure Start centres, libraries and leisure centres and protecting the weekly bin collections and budgets for looking after vulnerable residents and repairing the roads and pavements.

We will freeze Council Tax for a second year running and avoid hiking up charges for council services like parking charges and adult social care charges.

We are continuing to invest in the city’s public realm and infrastructure and despite the gloomy financial outlook nationally we are attracting businesses and jobs to the city.

We are cutting out waste in the council and reducing back office costs. We have cut the numbers of directors at the council in half and have reduced the numbers of senior managers by a quarter. At the same time we are protecting jobs at the front line so they can deliver important services to the public.

The Conservatives have been in office in Southampton since 2008 (with a period of minority administration in 2007) and we have stuck to ALL the promises we made to Southampton residents. We have done what we said we would do, we have been honest with residents and we have dealt with the significant challenges the city faces in a responsible and robust way. We have not made promises we could not keep and we do not intend to do so now. However with key elections in May it is important that we set out our new commitments to the city as we ask residents to vote for us again, to run the city until the next set of local elections in 2014. This document is a manifesto for 2012 – 2014 and it is Our Contract with Southampton.

Southampton Conservatives Launch Campaign to Save Our Libraries From Labour Cuts

Labour in Southampton have made it clear that they will cut up to 1500 council jobs, and vital services such as Libraries & SureStart will be first in the firing line if they gain control of Southampton City Council in May 2012.  

We can't let this happen! Southampton's Save Our Libraries campaign needs your support.