Opposition parties urged to see sense ahead of budget meeting

The Labour and Conservative groups in Brighton and Hove have been urged to ‘see sense’ by the Green Party ahead of Thursday’s potentially tempestuous council budget setting meeting.

The city’s 54 councillors are to decide on the council budget for the next two years at the meeting, but as the minority Green administration does not have an overall majority they need support to see their proposal through.

With less than 24 hours to go it does not appear the Green Party are going to secure the support they need with the suggestion from the Conservative group that they would rather support Labour’s budget amendment than allow the Green’s to pass their own, which of course includes the sticking point of the 3.5% rise in council tax.

Both of the opposition parties have been accused of using the city’s budget as a political football and council leader Bill Randall has said Labour supporters ‘must be appalled’ at the suggestion their party would collude with the Conservatives.

However, Labour’s Warren Morgan has used Twitter this evening to deny reports that a deal has already been agreed with the Conservative group.

He Tweeted: “No discussions, no deals.Greens have lost argument on #bhbudget so are falling back on name calling like Tories last yr.”

The Green Party presented their proposals two months ago to allow debate on the council’s budget and this has included heated discussions as to the merits of accepting a one-year offer from central government to freeze council tax.

Conservative and Labour budget proposals, which were released yesterday, outline a plan to accept the council tax freeze, but the Greens argue they are borrowing money from 2013-14 to subsidise 2012-13.

Current Green Party convenor Councillor Bill Randall, Leader of Brighton & Hove City Council, said: “After all the claims about not working together, it’s now obvious that the Tories and Labour have collaborated on near-identical plans to impose a new round of spending cuts on the city for years to come, just to see through their aim of freezing council tax for one year.

“They’re scrabbling together short-sighted cuts now and pushing even greater cuts back a year to pay for Pickles’ freeze.

“It’s financially reckless, and disappointing to see, especially from the Labour party, which has put aside all its principles just to get the freeze through, working with the Conservatives to impose a new round of Conservative spending cuts on a city which, in May, rejected a Conservative administration.

“Labour supporters must be appalled.

“The new Tory-Labour £3.6m black hole seriously threatens the frontline services we’ve managed to protect this year.”

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Posted by Joseph Lewis on February 22, 2012. Filed under Conservatives,Council News,Featured,Green Party,Labour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry