---

COUNCIL TAX SET AT 3.5%

…ALSO READ TEXT OF RA SPEECH

The Council Tax for 2008/09 has been set at £1,483 (band D) which incorporates an overall increase of 3.5%.

The Residents' Association group submitted a series of budget amendments which would have seen 0.2% reduction in the council tax whilst delivering £308,000 worth of service growth.

However, the RA proposals, which attracted the support of the Labour Group and the Rainham Independent Residents Group, were defeated by the Conservative Administration.

The RA proposed areas of budget growth:

Free Parking in out of Town Shopping Centres (£124,000)

Phased Re- Introduction of Park Keepers (£35,000)

A second Park Ranger at Havering Country Park [to help combat ASB and increase maintenance] (£25,000)

Increase Road Sweeping staff in StreetCare (£44,000)

Reinstate the School Uniform Grant (£50,000)

Maintain secretarial support for members (£30,000)

F unded by:

Reduction in the Frequency of the Councils Living Magazine (£50,000)

Efficiency gains on Furniture and equipment (£72,000)

Cut in Council Publicity (£15,000)

Review composition and/or structure of Cabinet (£66,000)

Review allowances on Overview & Scrutiny Committees (£35,000)

Better marketing of sports pitches (£25,000)

Increase Technical fees for TfL work and Highway Capital Programme (£58,000)

Review winter maintenance budget (£35,000)

Corporate Festivals (£25,000)

Build Civic Pride (£150,000)

Giving a net saving of £223,000

The proposals were delivered in a speech by Shadow Cabinet Member for Resources, Cllr Clarence Barrett. The full text of the speech is set out below:

29.2.08

---

SPEECH GIVEN TO BUDGET COUNCIL ON 27 th FEBRUARY PROPOSING RA BUDGET AMENDMENTS

By Cllr Clarence Barrett on behalf of the RA Group

Madam Mayor - before I begin may I take this opportunity to thank the staff who have provided us with the necessary professional guidance and support to assist us in this process, especially given the relatively short timescales.

Dealing with the background, I believe we are largely united in this chamber when it comes to the issue of central government funding. The settlement for 2008/09, which forms around 75% of our total funding, has increased by just over £1m, the minimum possible, and otherwise known as a floored grant.

The calculations leading to these settlements are very complex, however we do need a fairer and more transparent way of allocating funding. Despite constant lobbying from our members and officers, we are still at the end of the queue when it comes to government funding. I think this is aptly demonstrated when you see the cluster of councils that border Havering are among the very few boroughs that have received more favourable settlements, yet we are prominent by our obvious exception.

It is also a concern that while Central government spend more and more time and money devising ways of measuring performance, we must spend more and more time and money responding to those directives.

The Comprehensive Performance Assessment, soon to be replaced by the Comprehensive Area Assessment, is perhaps the best known example of measuring council performance, and may I take this opportunity to salute the staff of Havering who have responded to those challenges in a highly professional and efficient manner.

Despite recent announcements from the government that greater autonomy will be given to local councils, I was intrigued to see the creation of yet another layer of government bureaucracy. Earlier this month the Cabinet Office set up something called the ‘Service Transformation Implementation Unit' with a brief to work with councils in ‘specific areas of service transformation'.

No doubt the cost of this will be added to the £2.5 billion spent each year by this government in its pursuit to regulate and monitor local councils.

I believe that a culture with an over emphasis on monitoring and assessment can only stifle local councils and serve to distance local authorities from the very people they are set up to serve.

I do believe that local councils will offer better value for money if the government can stop imposing so many targets and complex performance measurements and allow us to provide a public service which is based on needs rather than targets.

Turning briefly to the Mayor of London's precept:

While the Mayors proposed increase of £6 looks modest, it should be taken in the context of how much it has increased over the last seven years. In 2000/01 the average precept stood at £123, this year it is £304 – an increase of 147% or an average of £25 per year.

When we look at the GLA, we should be looking in terms of Value for Money. For example, is that wonderfully impartial and ‘free' publication ‘The Londoner' really worth £3.8m a year?

Indeed, spending on publicity by the Mayor and his various quangos has been estimated at over £100m a year. Even with next year's moderate increase, I notice there is still room for 5 more additional staff - including another press officer. That will make around 70 press and marketing officers, more than four times as many as the prime minister's office.

One must also question the value and relevance of Ken's foreign policy which has seen GLA outposts set up in Shanghai and Beijing, and plans to open two more offices in India. Relevant? - Because it's London council tax payers who are footing the bill.

It is, of course, no coincidence that the lowest GLA increase should come about just before the Mayoral elections - should Ken be re-elected, I will await with great interest to see what increase we will face next year.

Madam Mayor , moving onto our approach to these budget proposals….

We have long listened to the concerns of our residents. Whether through our monthly ward meetings, Area Committee, by phone, letter or e.mail – we take ongoing stock of what residents want and don't want.

The priorities which have emerged through various opinion polls over the last 5 years come as no surprise to anyone, decent roads and pavements, tackling crime & disorder, clean streets, affordable levels of council tax, value for money – this is not rocket science, we know what needs to be done and we say lets get on and do it!

We HAVE listened to our residents and have put together a set of proposals that not only responds to the needs and aspirations of our residents, but also shaves 0.2% off the council tax proposed by the Administration.

Madam Mayor, last year we presented a set of proposals which would have reduced the council tax increase by 0.5% whilst still delivering service improvements.

This year we set out further savings of £531,000 with £308,000 worth of service improvements giving a net reduction of £223,000 – this would reduce the 2008/09 council tax increase from 3.5% down to 3.3%.

I shall now run through the proposed amendments -

SAVINGS

Sports Pitch Hire – While we recognise the need to realign the income budget to reflect expectation, we suggest that the Administration pressure of £40k to reduce the budgeted income down from £100k to £60k is excessive, especially with current year projections showing a £70k actual. We would take a more proactive approach by reducing this income budget down to £85k, thereby saving £25k, and to invest £5k in promoting and marketing the pitches during 2008/09.

Corporate Festivals – While we would still increase this budget provision by £25k, thereby providing increased capacity to support Planet Havering and other events, we would explore ways of seeking sponsorship and partnership match funding to host events in order to offset the full £50k increase proposed by the Administration.

Technical Fee Charges – With Transport for London funding at £3.6m next year, compared with an average of £2.7m over the past 7 years, and the considerable expansion of the capital programme for highway improvements, it is reasonable that an additional element of technical fees is chargeable in order to reflect the planning, monitoring and design work that will be undertaken by council staff. This £58k is prudently set out as a one year proposal as funding for the capital programme in future years is uncertain.

Winter Mtce – We propose to save £35k by realigning the winter maintenance budget to better reflect the milder winters that we have experienced over the past decade. A fact borne out by the Havering Climate Change Strategy and further reflected in a £40k under-spend last winter.

Living Magazine – We propose to reduce the distribution of this publication down from 10 issues a year to 5. We agree that disseminating information is a key issue, but we should look at all the methods at our disposal. For example, annual hits on the Havering website have increased from 360,000 in 2004 to 1.5m last year. Whilst not to be used exclusively, it nonetheless demonstrates the immense potential of the web. This proposal will result in a £50k saving on an annual budget of £102k.

Build Civic Pride – While we believe strongly in civic pride, we don't believe this will be achieved by producing more glossy brochures or promoting slick campaigns. Civic pride is earned through safe parks, clean streets, tackling crime and disorder and providing value for money. If we really want to improve the 46% overall satisfaction rate with this Council, these are the type of areas where the emphasis must lie. Civic Pride is not a commodity that can be bought for £150k, and we propose to exclude this budget growth thereby saving that sum.

Furniture & Equipment – Based on a total budget of £1.4m, we propose a 5% efficiency cut by deferring non-essential expenditure for one year. This would achieve a £72k saving in 2008/09.

Publicity & Information – Based on a specific budget of £193k, we propose an efficiency saving of 10%. After allowing £5k for a marketing drive for our sports pitches, this would achieve a saving of £15k.

Cabinet Positions - By reviewing the composition of Cabinet and the associated allowances, we propose a reduction in allowances and/or composition giving a saving of £66,000. The former would be subject to a revised scheme being agreed by Council next month.

Overview & Scrutiny – Similarly with Overview and Scrutiny Committees, we propose a reduction in chairman allowances down from £14,418 to £10,000 per annum giving a saving of £35,000, an amendment which would better reflect the relative workload of the positions. Again, this would be subject to a revised scheme being agreed by Council next month.

BUDGET INCREASES

Park keepers - Among the most popular comments we receive from residents is: ‘why did we ever get rid of park keepers?' - not only do park keepers provide a visible presence in parks in terms of security and deterring anti-social behaviour, they can also be deployed to be points of information and guidance in our parks. Working in partnership with ‘friends of parks' groups, we propose the phased reintroduction of uniformed park keepers and would launch the first stage of this initiative with the employment of 2 park keepers at cost of some £35,000 in the first year and then build on that number in subsequent years.

Havering Park Ranger - Havering Park has suffered from on-going incidents of serious vandalism. In order to tackle this we propose to provide £25k funding for an additional ranger to add to the existing member of staff. Having two rangers has certainly made a difference to Hornchurch Country Park and we believe that the same positive benefits should apply to Havering Park.

Reinstate Free Car Parking in our outlying centres - As discussed many times in this chamber and endorsed by some 20,000 residents and traders who have petitioned against the introduction of car park charges, we believe the provision of free car parking is essential to the economies of our out of town centres. This £124,000 pressure will reinstate free out-of-town car parking, free Sunday parking in Romford and free parking for the disabled –this pressure will put right what we consider to be a fundamental wrong.

Enlarge Road Sweeping Workforce – As shown in the council survey, clean streets is one of the top priorities for residents and in response we propose to increase funding by £44,000 to StreetCare to pay for 2 more road sweepers in the first year and to build on that number in subsequent years.

Review and Reinstate School Uniform Grants – Again this proposal sets out to right a wrong – even though a consultation exercise showed that 92% of parents opposed scrapping the scheme, drastic reductions were agreed. This scheme provided help to some 910 recipients in its last full year and we consider it vital to retain help for families on low incomes. We therefore propose to reinstate the fund with a £50,000 budget growth.

Member Secretarial Support – We propose to amend the Administration saving of £60k for Member support down to £30k, thereby retaining valuable secretarial support to help elected members perform their duties.

Madam Mayor,

In summary…….

THIS is a budget that responds to the views and needs of our residents…..

THIS is a budget which rights the wrongs of previous decisions…..

THIS is a budget which will reduce the overall council tax increase from 3.5% to 3.3%

Madam Mayor, THIS is a budget I commend to this Council.