Major shake up after Weymouth and Portland budget cuts

10:40pm Thursday 21st February 2013 in Latest By Martin Lea

NO CUTS: Protesters demonstrated against the budget NO CUTS: Protesters demonstrated against the budget

A DECISION on the Pavilion’s future had to be reached as part of the budget-setting process for the coming year in which more than £2.265 million worth of savings had to be found.
Services are being slashed as part of this process and investigations made into selling off valuable assets such as the Guildhall and council offices on North Quay.
Closing the theatre at the end of May and starting a tender process so it can be leased will save the council £700,000 alone in 2013/14.
The council is under huge pressure to make savings in light of the reduced amount of funding it gets from the government which, it is warned, will get worse in future.
Other budget proposals which were backed included reducing the CCTV budget by £100,000, closing tourist information centres in Weymouth and Portland and raising council tax so the increase on a band B would be 1.9 per cent.
The council is also moving out to all-out elections in 2015 and reducing the number of councillors.

Labour councillors and supported staged a protest before the meeting to demonstrate their opposition to the cuts.

Comments(13)

sparkleeye says...
8:13am Fri 22 Feb 13

Labour idiots. You bankrupted the country. Traitors.

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PHonnor says...
8:52am Fri 22 Feb 13

Closing the TIC all together is a crazy idea! Not only do they offer a point of reference to visitors and help them make the most of the local area but also offer a hotel booking service which assists the local hotels and B&B's with filling thier rooms, this obviously helps the smaller establishments who cant afford national advertising and rely on the towns holiday guide and TIC for assistance. The pavilion, all though not ideal location for the TIC at least had car parking so those who were driving can pull up and use the service, does the TIC actually need to move anywhere even if the pavilion is handed over, I cant see why not and I'm sure some agreement could be reached between both groups?

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UpweyGardener says...
9:47am Fri 22 Feb 13

sparkleeye wrote:
Labour idiots. You bankrupted the country. Traitors.
Absurdist rubbish.

Next!

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UpweyGardener says...
9:53am Fri 22 Feb 13

I see the Echo missed the point of the protest entirely. As I understand it, it wasn't simply a 'No Cuts' protest, but a comment on the fact that Local Councils' hands have been tied by central government.

The central government grants have been decimated by 38% over the last three years. As a result, local authorities simply don't have the room to wiggle on its service provisions (especially not WPBC where the Tories have for several years used reserves to make up shortfall rather than looking to generate further revenue, meaning that once Osborne's axe came a-swinging, the were up sh*t creek).

Osborne's left councillors with no choice. That's the reality. The Echo isn't astute (or sufficiently honest) enough to pick up on that, though.

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Andy Blackwood says...
11:54am Fri 22 Feb 13

Upwey Gardener is right. For the record (and in case the Echo don't print it) here is the statement that we gave to the press last night.

"This Government is cutting into local government funding more deeply and more quickly than to any other part of public service. Weymouth and Portland Borough Council’s funding has been cut by 38% over a three-year period, forcing the council to make unpopular cuts of its own.

These cuts are damaging not only the services that the council provides but also has a direct and negative impact on the local economy. And things are likely to get better not worse.

Even local Tory MP Richard Drax has complained about the funding of Dorset Councils and made special mention of the difficulties being experienced by WPBC (Dorset Echo, 12 February 2013)
http://www.dorsetech
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One of the Government cuts is to reduce the support given for Council Tax Support. The consultation on this matter was poorly handled and received a poor response.

At Weymouth and Portland Borough Council’s Full Council meeting on 24 January 2013 the Labour Group requested an amendment to the Council Tax element of the 2013/14 budget proposal in order to protect the most vulnerable residents of Weymouth and Portland.

The amendment was not supported by the majority of Tory and LibDem councillors.
The briefholder for finance opposed the amendment largely because of the knock-on effect that such a decision would have on the budgets of the other precepting authorities and particularly on Dorset County Council’s own budget proposals.

On 14 February, Dorset County Council decided not to increase their share of council tax. Effectively this decision means that the least-well-off WPBC residents who are now required to pay a percentage of their council tax will be subsidising more affluent residents across Dorset.

Labour councillors’ hands are tied. We do not have the power to impose the amendment or to impose an alternative strategy. However, we won’t support an attack on the least-well-off in our community and we refuse to do the Chancellor’s dirty work for him.

For this (and for several other reasons) the Labour Group will not support the current budget proposal."

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leo210856 says...
12:16pm Fri 22 Feb 13

Whilst I accept that everyone tries to point the finger at the opposition its clear that drastic action has to be taken.Irrespective of where the truth lies
It is clear that WDDC &WPBC working in partnership in certain areas has ,or at least we are told has, already delivered vast savings although there is little evidence of this in delivery of services.
The time has now come to either go for full integration of the two councils or reduce the number of elected officals
It wont happen because quite simply there are too many earning decent allowances and often from more than one tier of local government
What do they say about turkeys and christmas.

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weymouthfox says...
4:07pm Fri 22 Feb 13

How about cutting councillors allowances and perks? I wonder why that saving never makes it to the council agenda? What hyprcrites.

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Andy Blackwood says...
4:45pm Fri 22 Feb 13

Actually you're wrong weymouthfox. If you read the story you'll see that a decision was made to reduce the number of councillors. What isn't told in the report is that the Labour group proposed an amendment to the budget that would have removed the allowances for briefholders on the management committee until 2015. Unfortunately the Lib Dems and Tories decided that it shouldn't be discussed as a budget issue (?!!) and so it has been referred to the next management committee meeting instead.

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UpweyGardener says...
4:50pm Fri 22 Feb 13

weymouthfox wrote:
How about cutting councillors allowances and perks? I wonder why that saving never makes it to the council agenda? What hyprcrites.
Actually, had you been at the meeting last night, you would have known that the suspension of Briefholders' allowances was last night proposed as an amendment by the Labour Group.

It follows the revalation that brief holders (i.e. those leading on finance, planning etc) are not actually accountable for their briefs. So, if there's a c*ck-up in a particular area of the council's work (like car-parking, for instance) the respective brief holder cannot be held responsible.

To that end, the Labour Group suggested that paying councillors to perform a role they could not be criticised for performing inadequately was a waste of precious financial resource, especially at a time when the Council is cutting CT benefit to the poorest in our community. The savings from suspending briefholders pay would have gone a substantial way to allowing the council to continue make up the short fall in CT benefit.

Instead, the Tories and Lib Dems voted to penalise the poorest.

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PHonnor says...
6:09pm Fri 22 Feb 13

UpweyGardener wrote:
weymouthfox wrote:
How about cutting councillors allowances and perks? I wonder why that saving never makes it to the council agenda? What hyprcrites.
Actually, had you been at the meeting last night, you would have known that the suspension of Briefholders' allowances was last night proposed as an amendment by the Labour Group.

It follows the revalation that brief holders (i.e. those leading on finance, planning etc) are not actually accountable for their briefs. So, if there's a c*ck-up in a particular area of the council's work (like car-parking, for instance) the respective brief holder cannot be held responsible.

To that end, the Labour Group suggested that paying councillors to perform a role they could not be criticised for performing inadequately was a waste of precious financial resource, especially at a time when the Council is cutting CT benefit to the poorest in our community. The savings from suspending briefholders pay would have gone a substantial way to allowing the council to continue make up the short fall in CT benefit.

Instead, the Tories and Lib Dems voted to penalise the poorest.
Sounds like its time for a new political party to enter the fray, maybe one that put the residents of the borough first and doesnt have to tow the party line, local issues, local initiatives, local councilors, sound good?

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Chesilmaster says...
6:50pm Fri 22 Feb 13

£100.000 off the CCTV budget... Reduction in operation hours..... Free for all shoplifters, Drug dealers and any other crims to do what they want with no fear of cameras watching them... Weymouth will be a no go area again in a few years.

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Loopycathy says...
7:59pm Fri 22 Feb 13

closing the tourist information is disgusting, don't you want the money from tourists? The information office is also a place that gives help to the disabled tourist too and after hosting the paralympics I would have thought you were more disabled friendly!

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cj07589 says...
12:17pm Wed 27 Feb 13

sparkleeye wrote:
Labour idiots. You bankrupted the country. Traitors.
Well said and completely true it's complete mystery why idiots still vote for these traitors.

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