The hypocrisy of Tory letters (Councillors Bull & Lewis-Lavender and ex Councillors Groves and Lohendran, February 5) simply demonstrates their unwillingness to recognise the damage done by the ConDem Government.
As anyone who pays attention to the news knows, local councils have suffered a massive 40 per cent reduction in Government grant funding, which provides most of the money for local services. If the Conservatives are re-elected councils will lose another 40 per cent funding. As a result even a highly efficient council like Merton has to find £32m of undesirable cuts annually.
Let me scotch the nonsense repeated by Stephen Hammond that the council has £100m in reserves that we could use instead. That money is already earmarked for vital programmes like school expansions, community care, apprenticeships and action on homelessness. The actual general fund reserves will be £14m by April, which is below what is desirable given the council’s responsibilities.
In consequence, MAE is now financially unsustainable as a separate college, because the administrative and premises costs are too high. That is why the council is looking to deliver adult education classes through other existing providers in Merton. Grounds maintenance for parks in Merton and Sutton also now has to be outsourced to deliver savings: not to a ‘waste board’ as Coun Bull and Stephen Hammond misrepresent, but to a competent private firm specialising in grounds maintenance.
Every service is affected by Government cuts. We have done our utmost to protect services for children and adult social care for many years, but we are now being driven to unpalatable cuts. Nothing demonstrates more the urgent need for a Labour government that believes in decent public services and will fund them. Labour will bring social care and the NHS together into a unified service: meeting the health and social care needs of every person and supported by national expenditure. This will also be much more efficient and will save billions.
Coun Bull also repeats idiotic travesties about Dundonald recreation ground. It is not being ‘bulldozed’. Instead Dundonald Primary School is being doubled in size to provide another 210 much needed places to local children and the park will receive its best new investment for a generation including new changing rooms and pavilion facilities, a new children’s playground, an extra tennis court and landscaping, with the first new leisure facilities available soon.
Nor have I launched a pilot scheme for wheelie bins, which is not my responsibility. Ironically, the council has received a small amount of Government funding for a pilot, but realistically, because of the severe cuts to our normal funding, there is no prospect of this being rolled out beyond Lavender ward even if that was thought desirable.
Councillor Andrew Judge
Via email
- Send your letters to: letters@wimbledonguardian.co.uk
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