York’s Conservatives have criticised the proposed City of York Council Labour budget, papers for which were published on 19th January. The Conservatives will be submitting an amendment at February Budget Council to try and move the focus to the frontline and limiting the rise in Council Tax. In each budget amendment this term the Conservatives have been the only party prioritising no additional charge for residents first green bin, sorting out the appalling state of roads and footpaths and also cutting the cost of politics. The frontline focus will again be the focus for this year’s amendment, once Conservative councillors have read and considered the budget, but some initial reaction is below.
Conservative Group Leader Cllr Chris Steward said
Yet again Labour is set to hike York’s Council Tax by the maximum legally allowed without letting the people have their say; this being despite Labour saying at the 2023 Local Election that they would freeze Council Tax. After years of talk from Labour everyone in York has a Labour led council, Labour MP, Labour government and a Labour mayor and they will be wishing never again as this translates to a 0.1% increase in effective spending per person – assuming the maximum Council Tax Hike.
The budget contains a lot of hope about what new funding the Mayor and Combined Authority will provide and if this is not all delivered there will be some big holes. But even with this funding assumed, the stark standout in the budget is how much council borrowing is going up again, with the cost of just the new debt seeing a more than £2 million hike year on year on year. There look just a few new gimmicks to try and distract residents from how bad the city’s plight is under Labour, including more funding to Labour’s so called Community Caretakers who simply clean parts of the city in exactly the way the council should any way without it being noteworthy and needing so many photos.
