Lib Dems rescued Tory financial mess
February 22, 2010 denzilcoulson 4 Comments

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As Tory Council Leader, Cllr John Kingsbury, gloated about Tory “achievements” in his budget speech in the Full Council meeting on Monday night, he played down how our Lib Dem group effectively rescued his Tory administration from serious financial trouble that would have had serious consequences for council services and the council tax burden for our residents.

Had our Lib Dem group not supported the Tories in acquiring ownership of the Wolsey Place Shopping Centre, they would have had a £1.5 million hole in their budget this year. By owning Wolsey Place outright, we voted to buy an asset that guarantees rental income of at least £1.5 million per year. This meant that the council tax rise burden on residents is not as high as it could have been. I seriously don’t think residents would have forgiven any political opposition if it allowed a council to cut services dramatically thereby inreasing the burden on council taxpayers as well to pay more.

I agree with Cllr John Kingsbury on one point only – “our investments have enabled us to keep Council Tax low at an affordable level” but I do not agree that services have been entirely protected as he claims. In my experience as ward councillor as I have mentioned a number of times on this blog, too many of our housing repairs and green maintenance services take too long to complete. This is a direct consequence of staff being overstretched because there are not enough council staff to do the jobs that need to be done.

Tory raiding of reserves in the “good times” to accelerate redundancies in 2007/08 left the council with no reserves to help the council finances in the bad times now. The Tories did not save reserves for a “rainy day” as John Kingsbury claimed in his speech. With the sharp fall in car parking income at the start of the recession, the Tory council was in serious trouble as there were no reserves to “cushion the fall”. Lib Dem support for the Wolsey Place acquisition rescued the Tory administration from serious financial trouble. John Kingsbury should certainly give more credit to the Lib Dems where it is sorely due.

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4 Comments

1
John Doran » Blog Archive » Council buys Wolsey Place
Tuesday 23 February 2010 - 11:14 am

[...] at 11.15. Just read this on Cllr Denzil Coulson’s blog. I will continue to dig [...]

2
John Doran
Tuesday 23 February 2010 - 11:16 am

Denzil, thank for this but many local people are nervous about the amount of debt and also the secrecy surrounding this whole episode. When will the papers be published so we can see the business case and how the governance too place?

3
denzilcoulson
Wednesday 24 February 2010 - 6:28 am

I don’t know when the papers will be published as yet. I hope that it is very soon. I will make enquiries. Had this not been in Part 2, we may have lost the deal because of commercially sensitive information and the short time we had to make a decision.

I know some people are concerned about the council’s level of borrowing but, in this case, Wolsey Place provided the council a golden opportunity to deversify its income base and “invest to save”. At the moment, too much of our income base is reliant on car parking income, which has been particularly hard-hit by the recession. Rental income is far more secure than car parking income.

The council borrows to invest in income-generating assets, much like people buy a mortgage to buy a house. I’m sure most residents do not see their mortgage as debt and council borrowing needs to be seen in the same light.

We cannot borrow to ease the council tax burden and neither do we get a generous subsidy from central government to help Woking. In fact, we often pay more money back because we are perceived to be in an affluent area. I doubt that the position will change under a Conservative Government.

So we have to borrow to ensure long-term investment and income for the council so that our residents benefit from affordable council tax rises and services. My belief, and Vince Cable believes this too, is that you borrow to invest in times of recession when prices are cheap and make cuts when times are good. Unfortunately this is often done the other way around.

I doubt most residents are concerned about the level of borrowing. That’s not to say that some genuinely are. But the results of my recent canvassing show that borrowing or the defecit does not feature as a major issue on the doorstep.

Residents are more concerned about the services that affect them and elect councillors on that basis to ensure that they receive good council services for the council tax they pay. I am sure most residents will support this acquisition once they see the detail and why we supported this.

4
denzilcoulson
Wednesday 24 February 2010 - 6:32 am

I forgot to add that only 3 councillors voted against this acquisition. Two Tories and one Lib Dem. It had overwhelming support because it was a good deal for Woking’s future and I am very happy to defend my position publicly.



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