At the AVDC full council meeting last Wednesday, the Tory led Council pushed through their plans for a 2% rise on Council Tax.

In doing so, the Tories are putting at risk front line services as they are to scrap the Pest Control Service and the Health Improvement Scheme – which covers amongst other things the ‘slipper exchange’ for senior citizens.

The AVDC Liberal Democrat spokesman of resources Cllr Steven Kennell gave a responding speech and put an amendment that would have seen the saving of the pest control service and the Health Improvement Service. This was after the Tories faced a barrage of complaints by Lib Dem councillors when we learned that they planned to scrap the funding for the arts and sports councils. Cllr Paul Hughes the Liberal Democrat shadow cabinet member for Communities and Leisure said “By forcing the Tories to put back the funding for the

The Tories tried to recover their position by claiming that they were cutting back on the major spending plans on the Council Chamber and office block, which have a £12 million combined cost, but we have discovered that this is not fully the case.

AVDC and local residents are facing real financial worries but they are not solely down to the world economic situation, but that the pain will be heightened by the past and current actions of the Tory administration:
- the pressing on with the vanity projects, over budget or lacking in thought-out rationale, with the Tories unbalancing the Council’s finances to sustain them (and prevent themselves looking ridiculous)

- continuing to put accruing capital as their priority at the expense of revenue, meaning less money for services and making cuts more likely

- engaging in gesture politics, abandoning their own financial strategy in order to have a token 2% rise in Council Tax for a token one year, which will be of little help to local people and will put more pressure on revenue andservices next year.

Cllr Steven Kennell said “The Cabinet and the majority Tory Group ignored all real opportunities to reduce the pain the Council and its residents are facing. This pain is not just the economic downturn, but also of the Tory Cabinet’s own actions. Instead of real action for real residents of Aylesbury Vale, they have relied on symbolic gestures rather than measures of substance that would provide actual benefit.

Before now, the Cabinet Member for Resources had made very clear her view that a 4% increase in Council Tax in Aylesbury Vale was a pittance – the equivalent of half a pint of milk, so how can she and her colleagues honestly claim that halving it will make any difference to the real people we represent?”