By Carole Dennett
The most controversial elements of the Isle of Wight Council’s proposed budget were scrapped last night – but councillors of all political colours warned that worse is still to come.
Council Tax will rise by 4.99 per cent, but plans to introduce new parking charges across the Island – including Union Street in Ryde, Regent Street in Shanklin, Sandown High Street and Fort Victoria – have been abandoned. A proposed 25p-an-hour increase to existing parking charges, both on and off-street, has also been dropped. Other contentious proposals, including charging under 19s to use the Floating Bridge and doubling foot passenger fares to £1, removing support for the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme and closing Newport Roman Villa to the public, have also been removed. Ther 7-day a week service will be retained at the Household Waste Recycling Centres.
A £30 charge for replacing lost or damaged wheelie bins will go ahead, although this will be waived where the householder is not at fault. In better news for council staff, there will be no compulsory redundancies at County Hall, though staff costs will be reduced through a reorganisation of roles, services and responsibilities.
The changes followed a long adjournment to allow the leaders of the Alliance Group, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to meet privately with both Island MPs, who had arranged to be ‘slipped’ from their Westminster duties, to explore a joint amendment. All three groups had tabled broadly similar amendments. A unified approach was eventually agreed, although one person present described the discussions as “tense and at times bad tempered”.
Under the new committee system, the original budget proposals – previously the responsibility of the ruling administration – were effectively drafted by officers, specifically Chief Financial Officer Chris Ward, and approved for submission to full council by the cross party Policy, Finance and Resources Committee. This prompted veteran councillor Geoff Brodie, who will stand down in May after 21 years service, to complain that Mr Ward was running the council.
The amended budget passed with 30 votes in favour and eight against, but councillors across the chamber warned it amounted to a short term sticking plaster, with far more severe challenges and plenty of pain ahead.
Cross party praise for amendment not debated
There was cross party praise for Cllr Brodie’s own amendment, which was not debated due to the order of the agenda – which he described as a stitch up. His proposal was based on his belief that a £12 million transformation fund was pointless given the scale of the deficit: £20 million this year, rising to £60 million, and that it should instead be used to reduce the toll on Islanders. Both the Leader of the Council, Cllr Phil Jordan, and leader of the Empowering Islanders Group, Cllr Chris Jarman, said they would have supported it. Cllr Clare Mosdell, Cllr Brodie’s colleague in the newly formed Very Broad Church Party, said the amendment recognised “there is no way for us transform ourselves out of this” and urged honesty with the public about the situation. Cllr Brodie attempted to submit his plans as a formal amendment, but Monitoring Officer Chris Potter ruled it would constitute an illegal budget.
Councillors from all parties heaped blame on central government for the council’s financial crisis, complaining that detailed evidence submitted in support of additional funding had been ignored. Cllr Jordan said ministers had accepted the arguments, but civil servants told him last week they did not believe the figures.
Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Cllr Andrew Garratt, agreed that the government was to blame and expressed his fears of the council effectively declaring itself bankrupt by issuing a Section 114 notice. He explained: “We’re trying to at least steer the ship away from that black hole at least for a little bit longer.”
Cllr Karl Love was among those who warned that the council will collapse – predicting it would happen later this year or early next year. However, the majority view was that, despite the dire outlook, the council must do what it can to limit the impact on Islanders while it can. Cllr Ed Blake, Conservative Group leader, said the authority was in a “diabolical situation with zero wriggle room”, but described the amended budget as “a smidgeon better” than it would otherwise have been. He hoped that there might be a way out of the crisis, adding: “Only time will tell whether I am right or the doom mongers are right.” He thanked the two other party leaders for remaining around the table.
The government’s solution to the council’s funding crisis – allowing borrowing through the Emergency Financial Support scheme – makes no sense at all, said Cllr Jordan, who ended by declaring: “But abandon this Island. Never,” prompting a rare round of applause from the majority of members.