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H&F Council's Budget Update

We had a chance to review the budget last night (Wednesday 24th Jan) at the Council’s value for Money Scrutiny Panel. The Council is looking to save £34 Million from its £180 million budget. I appreciate that people will have very different views on the budget priorities for our borough – which is fair enough – but I think it’s healthy for our local democracy for people to actually see what happens with their money. I’ve listed the budget highlights below. The budget papers are also available via the Council’s website.• Raise meals-on-wheels charges to the elderly by £200.75 per person, per annum • Cut £1.4 million by tightening criteria for the elderly and sick to get home help and restructure the service• Cut £915, 000 from street cleaning and refuse collection service• Cut £317, 000 from the play and youth services• Cut £150, 000 from Occupational Therapy Service making it harder for low-income, elderly and sick people to have their homes adapted to suit their disabilities• Cut £223, 000 from the vulnerable children's budget• Cut £530, 000 by closing mental health day-care facilities• Cut £325, 000 libraries and archives • Raise £300, 000 from parking• Cut £100, 000 reducing staff that process homeless people onto the housing register• Cut £100k used for school improvement and achievement• Cut £30, 000 to reduce storage facilities for homeless families to keep their belongings• Raise £436, 000 from advertising • Raise £150, 000 by lobbing the Home Office and ensuring the deportation of 25 asylum seeker children, currently in the Council’s care• Cut £505 from housing homeless families in temporary accomodation• Cut £200, 000 in grants to bring private sector homes up to standard• Cut £50, 000 from theatresLast night, the Finance Director and the Leader of the Council confirmed that they want to recycle monies raised from selling land off into repaying balances and reducing debt. Interestingly three of the sites they are considering selling off are currently occupied by schools. The Council has already published a notice to close Hurlingham and Chelsea Secondary School (one of the best improving schools in the country) and they're looking at closing two primary schools. The Administration was well aware of the political implications of confirming that they want to sell the school's land to private property developers (which have an estimated value of around £70m to £100 million) and so they would only say that it was a “consideration”. My advice is, watch this space as it will happen.You’ll recall that H&F cut 3% off the council tax this year. That’s equal to £27 of a band D bill and was partly achieved by taking £1.1 million from balances – which the Council hopes to repay through land sales.

Stephen Cowan ● 7195d23 Comments ● 7142d

Donkey story

A young man named Gordon bought a donkey from an old farmer for £100.00. The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day, but when the farmer drove up he said, "Sorry son, but I have some bad news... the donkey is on my truck, but unfortunately he's dead." Gordon replied, "Well then, just give me my money back." The farmer said, "I can't do that, because I've spent it already." Gordon said, "OK then, well just unload the donkey anyway." The farmer asked, "What are you going to do with him?" Gordon answered, "I'm going to raffle him off." To which the farmer exclaimed, "Surely you can't raffle off a dead donkey!" But Gordon, with a wicked smile on his face said, "Of course I can, you watch me. I just won't bother to tell anybody that he's dead." A month later the farmer met up with Gordon and asked, "What happened with that dead donkey?" Gordon said, "I raffled him off, sold 500 tickets at two pounds a piece, and made a huge, fat profit!!" Totally amazed, the farmer asked, "Didn't anyone complain that you had stolen their money because you lied about the donkey being dead?" To which Gordon replied, "The only guy who found out about the donkey being dead was the raffle winner when he came to claim his prize. So I gave him his £2 raffle ticket money back plus an extra £200, which as you know is double the going rate for a donkey, so he thought I was a great guy!!" Gordon grew up and eventually became the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and no matter how many times he lied, or how much money he stole from the British voters, as long as he gave them back some of the stolen money, most of them, unfortunately, still thought he was a great guy. The moral of this story is , if you think Gordon is about to play fair and do something for the everyday people of the country for once in his miserable, lying life, think again my friend, because you'll be better off flogging a dead donkey!

Colin Murphy ● 7148d0 Comments ● 7148d

Price Hike in Parking Fines to £120

Local parking fines will rise from £80 to £120 following the intervention of a Hammersmith and Fulham Councillor. Councillor Nick Botterill (Con), the Deputy Leader of Hammersmith and Fulham Council intervened in a London wide meeting to argue for increased rates of parking fines. The decision was made at the Conservative controlled London Councils - a body which represents all thirty three Councils in the Capital. The minutes of the meeting on 8th December show that Councillor Botterill objected when the meeting agreed to have an £80 fine for not displaying a ticket in a parking bay. Instead, Councillor Botterill argued for an increase to £120 and the meeting agreed to go with his recommended 50% hike in charges. The new charges will kick in from July. The funds raised from parking fines contribute directly to the Council's finances. Any increases are a means of raising extra funds for the local Council.Labour’s Cllr. Mike Cartwright raised the issue with his Tory opposite number at the last Council meeting and commented “At least Councillor Botterill had the good grace to look embarrassed when I raised this with him. Local people are genuinely shocked when they find out that it is one of our borough’s elected representatives who pushed through this massive increase in parking fines. He must have thought that nobody would go through the minutes of the meeting and that he would get away with it. He hasn’t”.

Stephen Cowan ● 7165d8 Comments ● 7148d