As the Isle of Wight council (IWC) faces a financial crisis, all avenues have been exhausted by them in securing additional funding to help save vital public services.
The only thing that seems to hold any hope for the IWC being given sufficient money to survive next year is the visit from the minister, Greg Clark.
Last night, following Isle of Wight Conservative MP, Andrew Turner’s Friday surgery at Riverside Centre with members of Unite the Isle of Wight campaign group, for the first time, a significant question mark on whether Greg Clark will be unlocking any additional funding to allow the council and its services to survive was raised.
Turner on Clark: I didn’t say he’d give us more money
Members from Unite the Isle of Wight campaign group had organised surgery meetings with Mr Turner to ask for his help in saving vital public services on the Isle of Wight.
Cllr Julia Baker Smith was one of those who met with Mr Turner and following her meeting, she reported back to the gathering of members outside the Riverside centre.
She revealed,
“We asked, ‘Are you confident that we are going to get more money from Greg Clark?’.
“He said, ‘I didn’t say he would give us more money. I said that he would help.'”
Council facing a financial crisis
As has been comprehensively reported through OnTheWight, the Isle of Wight council are facing a financial crisis, having had to contend with over £50m of cuts to their funding from Government in the last five years and face going bust in 2017/18.
On 10th February, when Parliament voted on reducing funding to local authority budgets by a further 25%, Andrew Turner announced that he’d secured the commitment of minister Greg Clark in helping the Isle of Wight council’s funding shortfall.
Mr Turner argued that because the minister had committed to helping the Island, he would vote in favour of the cuts.
Why Andrew Turner voted for more cuts
Cllr Baker Smith asked Mr Turner last night why he’d voted in favour of the 25% funding cuts. She told the group,
“The reason he voted for cuts was, in order to take more money away from Labour councils ‘up North’, because they are spending too much money.
“In his view, we (IWC) were fine this year and therefore he could vote for those cuts this year, because the council on the Island had enough this year.”
