WARRINGTON Borough Council has approved a Council Tax increase of 2.98 per cent.
The rise – which according to the controlling Labour group still leaves Warrington with one of the lowest council tax rates in the North West – won the support of the Liberal Democrats.
But it was opposed by the Conservative opposition group.
The Liberal Democrats, however, described the meeting as “a farce.”
Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Bob Barr said, “My Group accepts there is no scope for choices in this budget. We praise officers for constructing a legal budget that protects services as far as possible. It is not at all obvious that the governing Labour Group had any real input into the budget and they appear to have accepted all the officer recommendations.
“We put forward an amendment that would have given every householder living in a Band A to D house a cost-of-living rebate of £15. While not much, this rebate would have been the equivalent of half of the increase of 1.98 per cent levied by the council. It would have cost £1 million from reserves and benefited over 77,000 households.”
Two Labour councillors put forward what the Liberal Democrat described as a “spoof amendment” based on a document that had not been circulated beforehand.
At one point, the Mayor had to suspend proceedings while discussions took place on how to proceed.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Cllr Ryan Bate said: “A meeting that had started in a sombre mood recognising the crisis in Ukraine turned into a shouting match between Conservatives and Labour. In these difficult times we should have had a consensus on how the council’s finances can be managed.
“More collaboration and transparency are needed. Instead, our group was disappointed and bemused as we watched this important meeting descend into farce.”
Cllr Kenneth Critchley, Conservative, said Labour had put forward a “budget of smoke and mirrors”.
He criticised the Labour leadership for what he described as a “failed” investment policy.
The Conservatives, he said, believed there should be no increase in Council tax for the coming year.
Cllr Critchley added: “It is unthinkable that the Conservative Group could support a budget that punishes the hard working people of Warrington with this maximum council tax charge, to bail out this failing Labour Administration.”
“We believe that there should be no increase in Council Tax for 2022/23.”
After two hours of continuing debate and without any prior notice, Labour then tabled an amendment to their own budget, even though they were not intending to support it, and produced an associated two-page document purporting to be a Conservative budget. Conservatives described the document as “misrepresentative and financially illiterate”.
Today, Conservatives are slamming Labour for a completely unacceptable stunt. A Conservative spokesperson said that “rather than focusing on producing a budget for the residents of Warrington, Labour seemed set on wasting time with silly political games. This is a ridiculous attempt to confuse the electorate with a fake opposition budget.”
“As a result of Labour’s unacceptable and incoherent actions, the crucial budget debate descended into farce and was suspended for several minutes.“
“Labour admitted that the dubious document had been prepared last week but still felt it was appropriate to bring Warrington Council into disrepute by proposing an amendment and vote on such an important topic without any notice whatsoever.”
“Labour’s actions at last night’s Council demonstrate their contempt for the people of Warrington and their lack of respect for Council Members.“
Kath Buckley, Conservative Group Leader, condemned Labour’s actions. “This was the most disreputable behaviour that I have witnessed at Full Council since being elected seven years ago.”
“Labour’s actions last night were clearly designed to distract from their serious budget failings which have seen Labour accumulate over £1.6Bn of debt, fail to secure sign-off of their statutory accounts for four years and put residents’ money at risk through their investment in the failed Together Energy company.”
Since 2021, Warrington Tories have promised a council tax freeze & ending commercial investments but amazingly never account for where their £39m of cuts would fall…
So tonight, we wrote an alternative budget to deliver their promises…
Surprisingly, they didn’t vote for it! pic.twitter.com/rk5ueiY0Hh
— Cllr Russ Bowden (@CllrRussBowden) February 28, 2022
1 Comment
That Russ Bowden put his leadership ‘weight’ behind the spoof amendment and that it was actually tabled to be voted upon, says all we need to know about the man and the local Labour Party.