COUNTY BUDGET: Liberal Democrats call to protect essential services

The Liberal Democrats on Surrey County Council have called on the Conservative administration at County Hall to borrow from growing reserves to tackle the short term funding shortfall for essential services and to freeze Council Tax in 2011/12.

At the Council Budget Meeting on 8 February, the Liberal Democrats will call for money to be taken from reserves and for spending on administration, communications and surplus properties to be reduced. This should be used to improve the condition of the roads and reverse the most damaging cuts by the Conservative administration to services that really matter to Surrey residents.

Essential services that are threatened with significant cuts include:

• the Youth Service - cut by £1.3 million,
• Day Centres for older people - cut by £300,000,
• the Mobile Library Service - set to be scrapped and
• the smaller libraries.

The Liberal Democrats will also call for concessionary bus fares to remain starting from 9am instead of the 9.30am proposed by the Conservatives to start in April.

Surrey County Council Liberal Democrat Leader Cllr Hazel Watson said: "Surrey County Council has received from central government a 0.3% reduction in spending power, so has fared relatively well in the Government's cuts to Council budgets, which have hit many councils very hard."

"I welcome the proposed freeze in the Council Tax made possible because of matched funding from the Coalition Government. This recognises the fact that many Surrey residents are struggling to pay their bills during the economic recession."

"The Conservative administration is proposing damaging cuts to services that really matter to Surrey residents; including the Youth Service, Day Care Centres for older people, the Mobile Library Service and smaller libraries. They are also proposing to change the start time for concessionary bus fares to 9.30am from its current 9am start."

"These cuts will affect those most in need of support from the County Council - young people, older people and disabled people. This is totally wrong."

"Neglect by the Conservative administration over many years has seen many roads falling into serious disrepair. Urgent action is needed to tackle Surrey's roads crisis, as Surrey's residents are dissatisfied with the state of the roads. The County Council would do better to repair the roads instead of spending over £1 million on claims against the Council for damage and injury relating to highways."

"The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has recently urged councils to dip into their reserves to help manage the consequences of the economic downturn. Borrowing this money from reserves will go a long way towards helping iron out the loss of funding for essential services in the coming year."

"The cuts to important frontline services could be avoided by reducing spending on administration that is shockingly set to increase by £1 million. The communications budget that currently totals nearly £2 million could and should be reduced. The County council's surplus buildings are wasted assets and thus wasting council taxpayers money."

"The £18 million under spend on the current budget and using some of the Council's reserves, which have increased from £55 million to £60 million over the last year, as well as the untouched £8 million contingency, would be better spent on services instead of piling up in the bank. The Council could also do a better job of collecting money it is owed; it is currently owed £12 million of unsecured debt."

"The County Council's share of over £21 million of money from developers in Surrey could, and should, be used on improvements such as highways and schools. This large sum of money has either not been received, or has not been spent. How can the Conservative administration plead poverty and cut frontline services whilst wasting millions of pounds of public money?"

"Important services are being unnecessarily starved of money, whilst money is piling up in the banks and the amount of money spent on administration is increasing. This is not the way to budget in the best interests of Surrey residents."