[Ken Moss]

For those who don't know, last night saw the annual budget meeting where the political groups put forward figures to balance the council's books and next week will see the last meeting of the full council before elections. For the HBC staff paid to read this forum on the Leader's behalf, read on and report back just what the good people of this borough feel about Conservative policies.

As has already been posted on another thread, Cllr Dobson last night confirmed that the closure of Peel Street toilets was nothing to do with saving money but a drive to get people into the Market Hall. Personally speaking, I can't see that going down too well with the public at large, especially as Cllr Haworth is only 'considering' opening them for the royal wedding celebrations whilst planning to fill the town centre with revellers. Perhaps they should read some of the reviews out there of their 'state of the art' toilet facilities.

The Labour amendments were rejected outright, with Cllr Britcliffe demonstrating just how out of touch he is with the will of the people by fully defending his own salary and stating that residents know he works hard for his ward of St Andrews. The other 15 wards didn't seem to come into it in that particular speech and he hit back by stating that if councillors were so worried about his expenses they should set an example by foregoing their own to save money. He rounded off the argument by stating that 'only £25,000 comes from HBC', the rest is from LCC and expense claims, and then laying into Graham Jones for a good five minutes, a man who wasn't even in the council chamber and hasn't been for 10 months.

To put his comments about foregoing allowances in perspective, I get an allowance which works out at £9 daily (which is taxed) and put in a minimum of 2-3 hrs every single day including weekends. Cllr Britcliffe gets nearly £118 every single day of the year and claims for meals, travel and even his daily newspapers, plus has a warm office and a dedicated press officer to publicise his 'good news'. I have none of that plus I have three other jobs out in the real world and a mortgaged terraced house, a lifestyle which differs wildly from the retired Tory councillors and one would assume that claiming £280 per month is my own fault for being too poor.

The Labour amendments to the budget were described as 'Scrooge-like' and 'gesture politics', understandable when it outlined reductions of over £36,000 in members' allowances plus another £54,000 of the council Leader's personal expenditure. Savings at Christmas were attacked, despite cuts also appearing in the Conservative proposals and 'token gestures' on allowances were further criticised by stating that they are reviewed annually by an independent panel. Odd then that Bernard Dawson was able to stand up and quite correctly point out that larger East Lancashire authorities pay lower sums than HBC does.

The biggest hypocrisy of the evening came by handing out £295,000 from reserves after shouting down Cllr Dave Mason of Great Harwood for saying that the Conservatives had plundered the reserve fund. £37,500 of votewinning cheques are now to be handed out prior to the elections, much of which had already been allocated to the Conservative councillors up for re-election. I questioned Cllr Britcliffe as to why this money could not have been handed out at the start of electoral year rather than just before polling day and got the usual response that I didn't understand how reserves work but one particular question went unanswered and I think it's worth pursuing. £17,500 is to be taken from reserves for an 'additional (revenue) contribution to the democratic process', but the Leader dodged the question of what this actually meant.

Both Labour and Independent parties outlined proposals to fully balance the budget and put money back into reserves but were left wondering how a Conservative budget which is already £240,000 short of the required savings laid down by the government could justify an extra £55,000 coming out of the piggy bank.

The Hyndburn Conservatives have completely lost touch with what cutbacks mean to real people so I would urge you all to spread the word and spare the borough another year of using public money to try and buy popularity.