From our Local County Councillor
COUNTY COUNCIL NOTES MID FEBRUARY 2004.
There is never a good time to summarize what is happening in the County
Council. The movement of events is unceasing. For instance, I cannot give you a
finished account of this year's budget debatebecause the final decision has
been postponed to the end of February. The reason is that one Government
minister (Clarke) is saying "you must give more money to schools" and
another (Raynsford) is saying "you will be capped if you put up Council
Tax by more than low single figures percentage". The council is saying we
can only give schools all the money Clarke wants transferred if the Council Tax
is increased by about 7/8%. Negotiations are continuing ...
As some of you know, the Council is consulting - and getting different answers. The majority, depending on which group you look to, is 8% or 6%. In my view, one of the saddest things is that the pensioners and those on lowest incomes clearly want the smallest increase, yet they are the people who are now or may be in the future, in need of the very services (mainly Social Services) that are likely to be cut if a low increase is finally chosen.
I have said before, and I will say it again, Council Tax is a bad tax that punishes the least able to afford it. It should be abolished or drastically changed. My answer to the question "what would you do?" is to raise it on Income Tax. I know it is easy to say and no doubt has its difficulties but we certainly need a radical change from an increasingly unfair imposition; maybe this is the incentive the Government needs to do something and not just criticise local councils who are trying to provide essential services in difficult times.
Another moving target, difficult to pin down at any moment is Climate Change. Most of us are aware of it but feel relatively powerless to do anything to avoid its unwelcome results. The County Council has a draft strategy prepared for Cambridgeshire following the Council signing the Nottingham Declaration on Climate Change in February 2002.
The strategy was designed to provide community leadership (we are the largest employer in Cambridgeshire) and to raise awareness; including tighter targets for reducing emissions from motor vehicles. This strategy will be updated by a memberled review on climate change which will make an interim report this summer. I serve on this small group carrying out this study, so I'll keep you informed as it develops. We are already aiming to improve energy saving and managing waste in schools and I expect we will push for all new Council buildings, including schools, to be built to low energy specifications.