High Peak Liberal Democrats

Making political points whilst Local Government is dying

I was interested in Danny Alexander's reply to LGA Tory and Labour Group Leaders about rumours that the government might be considering lowering the maximum increase a council can raise its Council Tax by before triggering a local referendum.

Claiming that Lib Dem led councils are tougher than those led by the two main parties will get us nowhere. In any case, how many councils do we still control? Not many I would guess compared with Tory and Labour and probably none at County or Unitary level where the real responsibility lies.

Danny should take a look at what's going on up and down the country before he adopts the overtly aggressive approach which seems to be the go-to position for us as a party at the moment - witness the recent letter to The Telegraph on immigration. Those of us who are trying to offer a modicum of services to our people know just what a hit we have taken in the past few years.

Lincolnshire, where four Lib Dems, since the 2013 elections, form part of the 'Administration Group', together with 35 Tories and three Independents, has lost £102m in grants since 2011 in an overall budget of just over £1 billion. Had we not taken the bribe of the Council Tax Freeze Grant over the past few years but instead raised our share of the Council Tax over that period by just under the 2% per annum allowed we would be around £12m better off now. So much for playing the game!

Since 1987 I've served continuously as a councillor at one time or another on at all three tiers of local government and, over the years, I have seen how governments of all colours have treated local councils with a mixture of disdain and indifference. The result is that we have become irrelevant to many people, until they need us.

Like many, I signed up to the plan put forward by the coalition and was prepared to do my bit to reduce the deficit. It is clear that there was some fat to cut in local government and there probably still is. But you can only go so far before you start cutting into the bone.

With more cuts in the pipeline our only recourse at the moment is to ask Council Tax payers to pay a little more if they wish to see services maintained at a civilised level. Devolving real power down without a root and branch reform of local government finance and structure is merely passing the buck. Whilst we wait for this reform, which must surely now come, we have got to survive the present storm and all we are left with is the Council Tax.

So Danny should be finding ways to help us in the time he has left at the Treasury rather than indulging in futile points scoring. 'Fiddling while Rome burns' comes to mind.

Cllr John Marriott,

Lincolnshire County Council

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Comment - Margaret Walch - Lincoln, Sleaford and North Hykeham

I share John Marriott's concern about local government, and would like to see more meaningful devolution to English regions combined with reorganisation of the city/county split which is so wasteful, eg Lincolnshire.

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