Senior Conservatives have strongly criticised the Labour Administration of WLBC for failing the resident of West Lancashire, by cutting frontline services and failing to invest, yet hiking up council tax, creating non jobs and taking on unnecessary borrowing. At last week's Full Council meeting Labour's decisions affected the following areas:
1. Green Waste Collection – Labour cut an essential frontline service by stopping the Green waste Collection for 4 months a year and they plan to impose a 'bins tax', charging residents extra for green waste collections from 2017/18. This despite the fact that a public consultation found large numbers of residents opposed this proposal.
2. Parished Areas penalised – Parish Councils will be £33k or 30% a year worse off following Labour's decision to slash Capital grants. These grants are used to fund parks, play areas and other community facilities in our parished areas that are not provided by the Borough Council.
3. Borrowing – Labour rejected Conservative proposals to avoid taking on £2.8m of unnecessary borrowing by the prudent use of reserves and this means the Council will be £0.2m a year worse off, money that should be spent on maintaining essential services. Labour also decided to waste £144k duplicating the work done by the county council – an unnecessary health strategy and the creation of a health manager, a non-job.
3. Park Pool – despite agreeing last December to Conservative proposals to allocate £150k for the much needed refurbishment of the changing facilities at Ormskirk's Park Pool, Labour voted to delay the much needed upgrade to this well used public facility for up to 4 years. Park Pool is now in direct competition with the facilities at the University and the proposed refurbishment is urgently need for Park Pool to remain competitive.
4. Moor Street Resurfacing – Labour cancelled Phase 2 for resurfacing between Moorgate and Railway Road. Before leaving office last May, Conservatives allocated £180k to complete this improvement to Ormskirk town centre, but Labour have chosen to spend the money in Skelmersdale instead. This was surprising as it was only on the 18th February that Labour members on the Corporate & Environment Scrutiny Committee voted with Conservatives in support of Phase 2 and the referral of the matter to the Labour Cabinet.
Cllr David Westley, Conservative Leader, said; "It was the same old Labour Party, spouting political nonsense about being ambitious and looking to "grow the Council", but the only things which have grown is the size of our Council Tax bills and the level of borrowing. Meanwhile, Labour has penalised our villages, delayed much needed improvements to Park Pool and blocked plans to finish off the Moor Street improvements".
Cllr Paul Greenall, Conservative Deputy Leader said: "For several years residents in West Lancashire have done the right thing and taken up the recycling challenge, and recycling rates have soared as a result. Now Labour are doing what they do best; making people pay more for this vital frontline service by threatening to introduce a 'bins tax'."