Wednesday 18 July 2012

Making cuts doesn't work like that...

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Last February I - along with my Conservative colleague on Bradford Council - voted against the budget proposed by the Labour Party (and their little watermelon pals from Shipley). We lost and, amongst other things, the Council agreed to make savings in the provision of public lavatories.

This evening we discussed a report at (Conservative-controlled) Shipley Area Committee on the vexed matter of those public loo savings. We were asked to "approve" the cuts proposed by officers. Which would have been fine if a majority of the committee hadn't voted against having those cuts in the first place.

If Bradford's Labour Party wants to make cuts to services can't they do their own dirty work?

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At the same meeting, former labour councillor Tony Miller launched into a bizarre criticism of 'snow teams' - a scheme where the council gives some grit and shovels to local folk who want to clear their little bit of road. Tony suggested that it was wrong and people should be paid to clear snow. Only a socialist could find something wrong with the idea of volunteering!

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1 comment:

Curmudgeon said...

I've always thought that providing a decent network of public toilets was one of the absolutely basic responsibilities of local authorities - along with roads, refuse collection and the like. Sadly, they are all too easy to cut while Five-a-Day Co-ordinators and the like remain in post.

Without adequate public toilets, very many people have to carefully plan and limit any trip outside the house for shopping or leisure purposes.