Well, Council Tax set – no increase.   No riots at Wokingham either, unlike many places.  But I thought you might like a bit more information than that about what’s happening.  I can’t tell you everything, because there is just too much.   And also some of it I don’t know, because the budget papers are put together in a way that is very hard to understand.   But over the next few days I am going to post some of what I said at the budget meeting, which will give you a flavour of the things I am worried about in the council – bearing in mind I am the Leader of the Opposition.

Today’s post is about the context in which the budget was being set, and gives you a bit of background on the process – and the secrecy.

First, the good news.  No increase in Council Tax, for which many residents will be grateful.  The government have given the council a special grant of £1.96 million to make sure there was no increase.  I am sure the 0% increase is what the Conservatives want the headline to be.  But it’s what’s concealed behind the headline that really matters. 

Times are tough.  Local government has less money than before.  But the reduction in grant to Wokingham is far smaller than for most other local authorities.   Some councils have been running around hacking away indiscriminately as a result of reduced grants,  but the administration in Wokingham had already planned to make 150 posts redundant and huge changes to service delivery.    It would be handy to have the £5 million which was invested in Icelandic Banks, the majority of which is still there, and about a million pounds of which Wokingham tax payers may never see again.   But even without it, at last month’s council meeting  (January 2011) the Executive member for Finance said the council would take the cuts “in our stride.”  

So what we had in front of us -on 22nd February –  a financial plan for the next 3 years and an outline of major projects for the next 10 –  is a result of choices made by the Executive.   Those choices were constrained by a tight financial situation, but they were deliberate and reflect the Conservative group’s priorities and their vision for the council.  And the Liberal Democrats think the Conservatives have got their priorities and their vision wrong. 

We have been through the budget papers line by line.  That resulted in a large number of questions to officers in the week before the meeting, and we are very grateful for the speed of their answers.  A lot of work has to be packed into just a few days so we can find out what the budget documents actually mean.    Because, in Wokingham, unlike most councils, the first time the opposition gets to see the budget is when the papers are published 5 working days before the council meeting at which they are going to be voted on. 

The reason why there are so many queries is the way in which the budget papers are written.   The descriptions and figures are not meaningful and there is a distinct lack of background explanation.  Controversial items appear to have been deliberately glossed over.  And some rather important things are missing altogether. 

A recent article in the Wokingham Times – not about the budget itself I should make clear – had the headline “Finance openness ‘is not a priority'” and quoted the Leader of the Council as saying “Sometimes some of this information provides fuel for people who spend their time asking for these pieces of information.”  Well yes, it does.   But of course, if you provided the information in a meaningful and transparent format,  people might work out what was going on.

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