At last night’s full council meeting, during the discussion over budget proposals Cllr Chris Welsford explained why the Independent Group of councillors had not submitted an alternative budget this year. He’s kindly shared his budget speech below for those who weren’t able to attend the meeting. In his own words. Ed
Cllr Pugh, yours was the most political speech I have ever heard delivered in this Chamber. Why you think it fair to use your power to give yourselves 40 minutes to deliver your political message I do not know!
Shockingly in your version of democracy you seem to believe that everyone has to vote for your budget or they are not acting responsibly. Actually, we are here to assess your plans and vote accordingly. In my case I shall be voting against, entirely on the basis that your budget proposals fail to address most of the serious issues that exist on the Island today.
That of course is entirely as a consequence of many of these problems being a direct consequence of previous budgets delivered by you and your group.
Robbed the Island of decent services
You say that your budgets have got us to a place where we are financially healthy and you say you have done this by delivering services satisfactorily.
This is clearly not the case.
What you have done is to rob the Island of decent services. The legacy of your mismanagement of the council finances is now apparent to all residents.
Failed to provide adequate child protection
Your neglectful policies and failure to correctly prioritise our limited resources has led to a number of stunning failures, failures that you take no responsibility for whatsoever. The worst of these is the abject failure of your Conservative ruling group, to provide adequate child protection services.
In 2012 there were 11 serious case reviews published in this country, 1 from each of 11 local authorities out of a total of 152 authorities.
Already the Isle of Wight has two serious case reviews ongoing for publication this year. Given the wholly inadequate Ofsted inspection report into our Child Protection Services, including direct criticisms of political leadership and scrutiny, this is an extremely grim fact.
No chance of ever getting it right
Coming after eight years of Conservative administration, the responsibility is yours. If you can’t get things right after eight years then there is no chance that you will ever get it right.
Your proposal for Hampshire County Council to take over responsibility for our Children’s Services is an admission that you have been unable to manage the service properly. Blaming officers for these failings is an outrageous accusation. Politicians make policy and officers implement. The responsibility is yours.
Failure to deliver services
The Director of Children’s Services announcement is a hammer-blow to the reputation of the Isle of Wight Council and may threaten its standing as a County. The consequences of this administration’s failure to deliver adequate services is finally and tragically evident.
If you consider where we are now, after the last eight years of Conservative rule, it is pretty damning. As a unitary authority, our County status is predicated on a number of statutory functions and responsibilities. Children’s Services is one of those. Despite the weasel words of Cllr Pugh, he has led us to a place we absolutely do not want to be. There is no county in England that would be happy to go where he has forced us to go through his poor political leadership and management.
What point of funding the county?
Given that we are one of the few counties not to have its own Police; our Fire & Rescue is controlled from Surrey; our secondary schools are self managed and Highways are privatised, I can only conclude that Central Government must be asking the question, having been forced to cede management of one of our last remaining statutory responsibilities, what is the point of funding the Isle of Wight as a County, when this Conservative administration seems to have demonstrated that others can do a far better job?
Where next?
What next? Planning, Adult Social Care? I hope that the public understand the significance of what is happening and punish Cllr Pugh and his colleagues in May. It may be our last chance to ensure we remain autonomous.
The decision not to submit a budget alternative this year is entirely made on the basis that we are at a time when it is not this chamber that will decide but the electorate and that is why it is right to vote against this conservative budget proposal and not put forward an alternative yet.
Cllr Chris Welsford
