In response to David Pugh’s letter to Government Minister Bob Neill, labour councillor Geoff Lumley has released the following. Ed
At the start of December ‘opposition’ councillors at County Hall (Labour, LibDem and independent) met with Andrew Turner MP to seek his support for ‘real and strenuous’ lobbying of the coalition government for more favourable treatment for the IW, before public expenditure cuts were made, given the special nature of our economy and our population.This was in response to the announcement of 535 job losses by the IW Council and the failure of the ruling Tory group at County Hall to support such lobbying.
The meetings were helpful. However, the MP was of a view that there is little point in approaching government for special treatment for the IW if the majority group at County Hall didn’t support it. He said he would explore getting some support for joint lobbying from the Council leadership. If that didn’t transpire, then he would consider doing a joint lobby with the ‘opposition’ groups only.
Subsequently the Leader of the Council called opposition group leaders together and suggested that he might be prepared to do some joint lobbying on specific issues. This was agreed to by opposition groups, though the specific issues seemed quite timid in their scale (about £3m) given the overall budget shortfall faced by the Council next year – £17m, half of this government grant, the other half local budget balancing.
However, the Leader of the Council changed his tack at a further meeting yesterday when he made it clear that a joint letter he was proposing to send to government would confirm the Council’s support for the coalition government’s national deficit reduction policy. This immediately placed the Labour councillor, Geoff Lumley, outside any agreement, and possibly the local LibDem group.
Today the Council Leader has issued a letter to government in his own name, proving that he would rather suck up to Tory Ministers about their fiscal policies than present a combined political front for the Isle of Wight.
Geoff Lumley said, ” It appears that ingratiating himself with Tory government ministers is more important to the Council Leader than doing something jointly with the opposition in the interests of our Island. I am now going to be calling on our MP to show that he can rise above the politics and put Island people first. The Council has actually lost a further £2.7m above what it anticipated to lose in governmment grant, which when combined with the original £8.5m expected is a horrific amount of money to lose for the Island’s economy. An effective Council Leader with friends in government should be camped outside their offices, not sending fan letters.”
