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‘Cuts’ to pay for clamping axe
THE Town Hall has drawn up a list of cuts to pay for its decision to axe car clamping.
Released yesterday (Wednesday), the hit-list includes:
• Putting off the planned refurbishment of Queen’s Crescent Library in Gospel Oak;
• Delaying a new brighter street light programme;
• Scrapping one management job;
• Cuts in the Camden Strategy Unit, a group of senior civil servants who help implement policy.
Labour said the cuts showed the new Liberal Democrat and Tory alliance had its priorities wrong, choosing populist policies ahead of well-used services such as libraries.
The partnership administration hit back with by insisting that the changes would prove painless.
The loss in revenue from not using clamps is expected to be a £3.2 million over two years, with an immediate punch of £1.5 million to council coffers.
Tory and Lib Dem leaders are adamant that, as parking penalties should not be issued to raise money, the deficit should be easily dealt with.
Environment chief Cllr Mike Greene, a Conservative, said: “Different authorities have different priorities. We are a new authority and we will have different priorities than the previous one.”
The new council chiefs were yesterday (Wednesday) quibbling over the term ‘cut’ – insisting that their plans were ‘adjustments’ and ‘savings’.
Cllr Greene said: “Most of the money will be found in efficiency savings. I don’t see those as cuts.”
Lib Dem councillor Flick Rea, in charge of the culture department, said that she was not turning her back on Queen’s Crescent Library by signing up to the budget plan.
She added: “The libraries in Camden have my full support. I think they are all important. I don’t think one is more important than the other. We are not saying that we won’t do the refurbishment at Queen’s Crescent, we are just waiting for a few months.”
The decision is a potential for embarrassment for the Lib Dems whose new Mayor Jill Fraser campaigned for the library to get its long awaited facelift.
But Cllr Rea added: “This is not a cut. It is a deferment and it is actually quite a small part of this whole plan.”
The new budget plan will be finalised at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. But Labour, who resisted calls to abandon the unpopular parking penalty while in power and were often accused of using it to milk cash from motorists, have warned that residents will feel the pinch.
Councillor Theo Blackwell, once the Town Hall’s deputy leader, said: “It’s a disgrace. They have got their priorities all wrong. Labour worked hard to improve facilities such as the libraries. We were committed to good services. They have got their priorities all wrong.”
Mike Katz, another campaigner for the library’s refurbishment, said: “I know that there will be people who will be disappointed that this isn’t going to happen.
“Whether they are the same people who are going to enjoy the fact that they are not getting clamped I’m not sure. Labour was committed to providing services for the young, the old, the whole community and £100,000 had been promised to do up the library.” |
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