Row over political sham claim

THE leader of the Liberal Democrats on Warrington Borough Council has hit back at claims by Labour that the council meeting earlier this week was a “political sham”.
Cllr Ian Marks (pictured) said: “I would call it a shambles rather than a sham and I have never seen the Labour Party so rattled.
“Their contribution to the meeting was virtually non-existent. They submitted no motions and no questions. Their problem is that there is plenty of in-fighting in their party between the different factions, although this has yet to fully surface in public.”
Cllr Marks said Labour had failed to come up with an alternative budget at the previous council meeting.
“Before we took control in 2006, we prepared a proper alternative budget which is what you would expect from any responsible party that aspired to take power. “All they produced on the night, were a few examples of where they would spend money but with no indication of where it would come from.
“They oppose every saving we make but give no indication what they would do if they were in control. They are still in denial that their government caused the financial mess we are having to deal with.
” They ignore the fact that had Labour won the General Election they had planned cuts of £72 billion to the Coalition Government’s £83 billion.
“On Monday Labour didn’t like all the positive achievements I announced. To talk of a failed administration is sheer nonsense and flies in the face of reality.
“They didn’t like it when we exposed that £33m of council house rents had left Warrington to prop up other councils because of their failure to transfer our council houses years ago.
“They didn’t like it when we brought into the open the appalling deal they made on the Hatters Row shopping mall nor the delay to the Omega development because of their dilly dallying on the original planning application.
“How disappointing for them when we categorically stated that there would be no incinerator in Warrington, so putting an end to their shameful scare campaign. “And finally they didn’t like it when we pointed out that for the last five years of their rule, council tax went up on average nearly seven per cent a year whereas under our watch it has only gone up three per cent a year, including a nil increase for next year.”