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Labour lose it in Council


Another symptom of an early General Election (apart from the financial crisis embroiling the government and the disputes between Brown and Blair) was Labour's antics today in the council chamber.

Firstly, they don't want to keep the Yardley wards together. Yardley, Sheldon and Acocks Green as areas have been together since 699. The Boundary Commission supported by Labour want to split them up putting Sheldon in with Washwood Heath and putting Yardley/Stechford in with Small Heath and Sparkbrook. This means the road Constance Road by the Cricket Ground would actually be in Yardley Constituency.

This Council opposes this supporting an alternative more sensible scheme.

Secondly, Labour voted against our proposal to hold onto the PRG monies. We have about £8 Million sitting in a bank account. We would like to have this to spend on Social Care dealing with children, elderly people and the disabled. Labour want to spend it. The only specific project they mentioned was a Skate Park in the city centre.

Labour are claiming we want "cuts" because we want to spend the money on social care rather than on a Skate Park.

The fact is that the City Council had a forecast deficit of £22.7 Million in Social Care alone by 30th June 2004. The new administration took "office" on 29th June. However hard we tried we would not be able to spend £22.7 Million on Social Care in one day.
In any event the Labour Leader and Deputy Leader squatted in the Leadership offices for about a week well into July.

Quite surreal.

To add to the surreality of this we have Lib Dem Watch's take on the situation. If the Labour Group were chanting then they had better learn to chant a bit louder - I couldn't hear them. No wonder the Labour Party are calling for more effective campaigning in Birmingham if this is all they can come up with.

Labour clearly want Skate Parks not care for the vulnerable. In any event there is a Skate Park in my ward (South Yardley) and also the Council is supporting Epic Skate Park which may be the biggest skate park in Europe. How many skate parks do we really need.

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