Council rejects all options on council tax benefit

It was a case of good news / bad news at today's Cornwall Council meeting where council tax benefit cuts were on the agenda.

The good news was that the Conservative proposal to impose a 25% rise in council tax on the poorest families in Cornwall was defeated by 43 votes to 37.

The bad news was that the Liberal Democrat alternative to continue with the current scheme was also, very narrowly, lost by 44 votes to 41. A number of councillors were controversially excluded from the meeting because of their relationship to people who receive council tax benefit.

That means that there is currently no proposition on the table and councillors must reconvene before the end of January in order to seek a solution.

My argument was that it is wrong to expect families which have no spare income to pay anything between £250 and £1000 a year. Most simply cannot afford to do so and if they cannot pay, they won't. The council will therefore be tied up with endless court procedures, summonses and bailiffs. Instead, I argued that we should be using the new income from closing the loopholes on second home and empty homes council tax - which is the same amount as the cut to benefit funding.

My colleague, Ruth Lewarne, asked the Leader whether he had met with any groups representing people affected by his proposals - or any individuals likely to be affected. He confirmed that he hadn't, saying that he was too busy to do so. In a similar vein, Cllr Ferguson said:

"I don't know anything about these people"

when asked about people who would be affected by her proposal.

Cllr Ferguson, the cabinet member for finance, proposed a hardship fund of £1 million to be found by cutting the higher education bursary. This idea was heavily defeated, partly on the basis that any scheme that requires a hardship fund of around a quarter of the total amount has not been properly thought through.

The council will seek a fresh alternative before the 29th January but Liberal Democrats will be seeking to ensure that this on the basis that the poorest families who cannot afford to pay should not be made to.

Tweet

So why is the Conservative Leader's budget not the same as the Leader of the Conservatives' budget?

It seems like Cornwall Conservatives are bidding to out-omnishambles George Osborne with their budget.

On Wednesday, the Leader of the Council - Conservative Jim Currie - published his administration's finance proposals for the coming year. They are looking to find about £6.3 million of front line service cuts (despite the promise made last year that there would be no need for additional savings this year). They also propose a rise in council tax of 1.97% after two years of freezes.

But last night it emerged that there will be a different Conservative budget which will seek a further year of council tax freeze. We don't yet know any more details of this proposal and might not do so until just before the formal council tax setting meeting in mid February. That's because amendments aren't subject to formal scrutiny (but do have to be signed off by the chief finance officer of the council).

What is most strange about this whole scenario is that the cabinet member for finance is Fiona Ferguson, the Leader of the Conservative group on the council. So it appears that she is set to vote against the budget she is responsible for.

I'm inclined to think that her position on the cabinet (at least in the finance role) is untenable if she continues to oppose her own budget. Surely she must back the administration's official budget, persuade her colleagues to adopt her budget as the official one or resign from the cabinet?

Tweet

Grant Shapps should get his own house in order

This morning, Tory Party chairman Grant Shapps took to the airwaves to claim that Labour MPs had written a report calling for councillors to get higher allowances simply because the party would get more money from the tithe they operate.

Of course, there are any number of things wrong with his premise. The tithe is a voluntary donation - it has to be by law - and all parties do it to one extent or another. The report by the Commons Local Government Select Committee was written with unanimous cross party support and the Government parties have a majority on the committee.

But what's this? It seems IPSA, the organisation responsible for MP pay, has commissioned a survey of MPs and members from all parties think that they should be paid more themselves. And Conservative MPs are the the greediest of the lot, calling for a 50% pay rise.

Perhaps Mr Shapps should look to get his own house in order before trying to lecture others.

Tweet

Tories propose cuts to community chest funding of more than half

The Conservative led Cornwall Council has just published its draft budget for the coming year. I'm going through the details and I'll blog the key bits as I come to them.

One of the first cuts that jumps out at me is the proposal to cut by more than half the community chest funding that each councillor gets to give to good projects in their local area. The plan is to cut this money from £2195 to £1037 each year. That's a cut of 52.8%.

(The £2195 figure was itself a cut. It was meant to be £3000 a year with a lower figure for the first year because councillors took up their posts part way through the year. But, in typical Conservative fashion, once the cut was made, it was never restored.)

So what is likely to be the result of such a cut? Each councillor uses their community chest money slightly differently.

I have used mine to help start new projects like the Love Launceston Loyalty Card, Launceston Foodbank, the new Debt Advice Service and to start up the residents association at Kensey Valley.

I have helped organisations with new projects including buying new headguards for Launceston Boxing Club, helping a group of people with learning disabilities to learn gardening with the help of the Eden Project and buying basic materials to help a group of older people take up art.

And I have stepped in to help plug the gaps when things our town relies on have been short of money including putting money into Launceston Christmas lights and ensuring that grit bins were filled up after a developer left them almost empty.

So if the Conservatives get their way, much of this sort of thing won't be possible in the future either in Launceston or other parts of Cornwall.

Tweet

Labour confirm they have given up on Cornwall

It's just confirming what everyone in Cornwall suspected, but the Labour Party have today announced that they have given up any hope of winning an MP in Cornwall at the next general election. The real battle, as always, will be between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

It is unusual for any political party to make public their list of target seats - those they think they can gain at a general election. But today Labour did just that - listing 106 seats across the UK that they will be trying to add to their current total in 2015. It is almost certain that they won't win all of these of course and they wouldn't need all of them to form a majority in any case. But these are the seats they think they have a hope in.

But what stands out for me is that there are no Cornwall seats in the mix - and only one in Devon that they hope to add to the two they already hold in that county.

So despite claiming to be in with a chance in Camborne, Redruth and Hayle last time, Labour have now admitted that they cannot win there. That seat, like the other five, will remain a close battle between the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives. Each party currently holds three of the MPs.

Tweet

Launceston Hospital - still no date for full re-opening

There is still no date being set for the re-opening of all the closed beds at Launceston hospital. That was one of the messages from the Chief Executive of Peninsula Community Health, Kevin Baber, when he spoke to councillors this morning.

As many as ten of the twenty beds in the hospital have been closed for some time and Mr Baber told councillors towards the end of the last year that his organisation was hoping to get some of them re-opened by the end of January. And the report he produced for the committee today indicated that they would have five of the ten reopened by January 21st. Except he indicated that there had been a slight hold up and this target might not be met.

But the intention is still there and I believe that PCH are working towards re-opening the beds.

But when I asked about the remaining five beds, Mr Baber was unable to indicate when these will be back in use. He said that he would continue to try to recruit staff and would re-open the beds as soon as it was safe to do so. I believe that is the case but I'm disappointed that there is no date in the mind of PCH for achieving this aim.

As things stand, Launceston Hospital has 95% bed usage. That's high and well above the average. It goes to show that there is a strong demand for these beds and I hope that PCH will do everything they can to make sure that all the beds at Launceston Hospital are re-opened as soon as possible and, crucially, that they remain so in future.

Tweet

New Year - New Win as office wedding proposals get the heave ho

Back in November I blogged about the proposal from Cornwall Council to refuse to allow ceremony rooms to be used for basic weddings and civil partnerships. The authority wanted to force less well off couples to use offices for these ceremonies and to restrict the use of ceremony rooms to much more expensive events.  In the case of Launceston, this would have meant that civil weddings and partnership ceremonies would have been held in a windowless office at the back of the library.

I'm delighted to hear that the Council has backed down on this proposal following strong condemnation from myself and other councillors. The new proposal is that all ceremonies will take place in proper ceremony rooms.

Tweet