Council ‘strikes lucky’!

To claim that residents of Kingston are receiving ‘value for money’ by the Lib-Dem administration after recording an under spend of just £71k for the final year-end budget (2010/11) fails to demonstrate transparency and the reality of how this council spends tax payers money.

The statement by Cllr Rolson Davies Lib-Dem Executive member for Finance was released despite residents across the borough continuing to pay the highest council tax in London and the second highest in the whole country!

 Cllr Howard Jones said: “that the council has been somewhat fortunate to deliver a £71k under spend when £827k alone was saved due to the coalition government’s decision to cease the Build Schools for the Future programme an area that the council had no control over”.

In addition, Cllr Priyen Patel said “a further £206k was saved due to a one-off income of VAT rebates concerning parking fees dating back over 40 years. Taking these two ‘un-budgeted’ events into account the council would of in fact recorded another overspend in excess of £962k!”

 This result comes against the backdrop of cuts to adult social care and hikes in fees for the most vulnerable, whilst senior officer’s pay continues to remain ‘excessively’ high in relative terms to the size of the borough.

 Whilst yet again more taxpayers money has been pumped into subsidising the Rose Theatre. All this compounded further by hikes to parking charges and business parking which has undoubtedly had a knock on affect on the Council’s income after recording a staggering fall in revenue of over £503k from off-street parking.

Not that any of this affects Cllr. Houston because, as we know, HE LIVES IN ELMBRIDGE.