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£28m to be saved in the next year
Conservatives have pushed through their budget plans to save £28m in the coming year.
Yesterday members of the Conservative administration at Northamptonshire County Council voted through their budget plans which included cuts of £4m from prevention services, £500,000 from funding PCSOs and cutting nearly 300 posts.
During the six-hour meeting they also approved an amendment to their budget to invest a one-off cash injection of £300,001 into the police for an initiative designed to reduce violent crime and stuck to their promise of freezing council tax.
Council leader Jim Harker said: “Last month 40 per cent of the British population stopped saving so they could pay their household bills. They don’t want local councils to put up council tax and this budget recognises that.
“We’re putting money into protecting vulnerable people, such as older people and looked-after children, and an extra £300,001 into reducing violence. We are looking after people’s pockets and people.”
But the Liberal Democrat, Labour and Independent members criticised many of the Conservatives’ plans, including the funding cut to PCSOs and the proposal to invest £2m into tourism and business promotion group Northamptonshire Enterprise Partnership (NEP).
Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Brendan Glynane was backed by other opposition members when he challenged the Conservatives over their pledge in their last election manifesto to invest £500,000 a year into PCSOs, but the ruling group said it was up to the police to pay for policing.
And Labour leader Cllr John McGhee questioned their investment in NEP, saying: “Let’s stop paying quangos lots of money and put that back into the most vulnerable people in our society.”
Fellow Labour councillor Julie Brookfield also criticised the Conservatives for cutting £500,000 from children’s centres and remodelling Connexions to save £700,000 as part of the cuts to prevention services.
Conservative councillors welcomed two changes to earlier draft budget plans. They agreed to extend the supplementary schools funding until July and instead of cutting the Empowering Councillors fund from £7,000 per councillor a year to £5,000 they will now cut it to £6,000.
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Weather for Kettering
Thursday 24 May 2012
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Temperature: 11 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North east
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Comments
There are 8 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
ruby123
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 06:25 PMI would have liked the councillors to have proved we are all in this together and reigned in their vast expenses. I am appalled Mr Harker claimed £53,000 last year and that another councillor who had a bus pass claimed taxi fares from their village to meetings in Northampton on a weekly basis.
Mrk
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 05:51 PMWe are not all in this together though are we? Not while we are paying the top 3 Kettering council leaders almost half a million a year in salaries - not to mention the free cars and allowances they receive. The local economy is being raped.
Eagle eye
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 03:54 PMAgree with el boy, the money would be better spent on fully trained police officers .
DaveTurner
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 02:00 PM300,001 sounds like a strange number for a project. Could there possibly be a requirement that they have to have more than 300,000 set aside for such a scheme in the first place and an extra pound was the smallest amount they could be to meet that requirement. I don't think it is so much a one off cash injection but something that they had to do that came from Whitehall. There would be no reason to cut police funding and then add back in 35th of the amount again as a one off 'injection', they would have just cut the funding and be done with it and saved that huge chunk of change. The Conservatives on the County Council love their little games.
Victor Stirling
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 01:31 PMThis is what happens when the Conservative party has a whiff power. Cuts, cuts, and more cuts, until they reach their ideological zenith - the poor working for free and knowing their place, while the rich keep the natural wealth of the land to themselves. Unfortunately, this practice has a stranglehold in Northamptonshire as it is populated by selfish and wealthy NIMBY's, who only look out for their own interests and not those of the whole community.
trucker
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 12:07 PMwll done to the n.c.c,again people suffer while the bigwigs still get a high salary.
baldegale
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 11:03 AMmellboy Sorry that you feel that But is the PCSO that keep Oakley Vale Crime Down as we only see the real police Driving Fast through Oakley Vale Area
mellboy
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 10:27 AMShould scrap the usless PCSOs a total waste of money.
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