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Posted by yestomayor Salford on 17th December 2011 at 01:28 AM Cutting Council Tax in Salford by half - Mike Moulding,
The mayoral referendum debate accused the Mayoral Alliance of not understanding the srtucture of the council and how we would cut council tax in Salford by half. heres the answer :-
Over the past few days The Mayoral Alliance which includes independents, English Democrats and The Community Action party have been criticised by the Labour Group and others about our proposals on how council tax can be cut by 50% in Salford saying it cannot be done, its illegal, mass redundancies, care for the elderly cut, we do not understand the structure of the council and scare story after scare story.
So this is how it can be done........................
An elected mayor would have the authority to make decisions and give instructions. An elected mayor to cut council tax by 50% would have to be a strong elected mayor, be politically astute and use the resources at his/her disposal.
Salford City Council spends 34 millions every year on regeneration. This alone equates to about £300 per household per year. This is where the majority of savings will be made. Trafford Council spends £1 million on regeneration a year. Salford spends 34 million.
Much of the regeneration in Salford is unwanted. Thousands of people displaced, homes CPO'd against owners wishes and Salford's heritage is being destroyed. Communities ripped apart in the name of regeneration. The Chapel St fiasco, the purchasing of The Langworthy Hotel for £410,000 by Salford Council for it to be demolished. The type of regeneration Salford Council is engaged in is not what true Salfordians want.
If I can use this analogy. City West Housing Trust are spending millions bringing their homes up to The Decent Homes Standard. How do they do this ? They dont knock perfectly good houses down and rebuild them. They renovate them bringing them up to standard. That way people stay in their homes and communities are kept together.
As true Salfordian & Socialist Ken Keating, who is sadly no longer with us believed - the regeneration of Salford is not beneiting Salfordians.
The mayor would instruct the cabinet and senior officers of the council to come up with several options for a budget that included a cut in Council Tax by 50% by concentrating savings in the regeneration budget. Salford Council receives a higher grant than most councils so this percentage cut is affordable.
The officers would be set timescales which would have to be met as demanded by the Mayor. The cabinet and officers would present their proposals and options for consideration by the mayor which would achieve the mayor's aims of cutting council tax by half. They would have presented several options for consideration.
The Mayor would consider the options in detail, ask questions, seek answers to every detail and instruct officers to if necessary, go away and come back with other options, to remove proposals or include further proposals. A Mayor in his/her deliberations would establish outcomes of savings, what they would mean in detail which would ensure no cuts in front line services.
Once the mayor has finalised a budget and set it it would be presented to the Council. Any Mayor would have to be a very strong and determined Mayor to achieve their goal.
Now thats not difficult is it - the process !
Mike Moulding, The Community Action Party (Part of The Mayoral Alliance)
Comment by John Merry ( member ) 21st December 2011
Not what the Audit Commission or indeed Mr Pickles believe . The Mayor is not even allowed to choose his own chief executive Mr Pickles does it for him. Intresting that having seen your policy of halving the council tax shot down in flames you choose to praise a Mayor that according to the Audit Commision and Mr Pickles is the worst in the country |
Comment by jerry ( member ) 21st December 2011
What are these BBC programmes, they have been mentioned here by a couple of people but with no details. |
Comment by yestomayor Salford ( member ) 21st December 2011
The reality is the Mayor of Doncaster has made massive savings for local people by scrapping the funding of politically correct schemes which should not be funded by local taxpapyers. Nothing wrong with that. It helps bring down local taxes for local people so that they can spend their hard earned cash on their own families instead of people like yourself on behalf of Salford City Council spending say £670,000 of local taxpayers money on 3 BBC programmes. In relation to the debt of Salford City Council if you think managing a debt of £600 millions is good financial management then you are living on cloud cuckoo land Cllr Merry. |
Comment by John Merry ( member ) 21st December 2011
The debt of the Council is not out of line with other Councils and we can borrow cheaply because our financial management is rated highly by the Audit Commision . Indeed we enjoy a top credit rating. |
Comment by John Merry ( member ) 21st December 2011
The report IS about the period when the Mayor was in power.The inspection took place in Jan 2010 after the Mayor has been had been in power almost a year. The report said of the Mayor he "does not always act in a way which demonstrates the need for an elected mayor to lead his authority and represent all the people in Doncaster" . It is not a good idea Michael to make false statements that can be easily checked |
Comment by yestomayor Salford ( member ) 21st December 2011
typo Getting* |
Comment by yestomayor Salford ( member ) 21st December 2011
Cllr Merry it is all rather desperate stuff by your part. Labour were well & truly booted out by the electors in Doncaster because of their incompetence hence why the English Democrats were elected as mayor. You are geeting very good at trying to deceive everyone. The rality is that services were slated by the Audit Commission for the period when Labour was in power. It takes time for a new person to come in and sort any mess out. The sorry thing is whoever comes into Salford has to sort a bigger mess out. Your financial incompetence of the Council ? 600 million pounds in debt ? |
Comment by John Merry ( member ) 21st December 2011
So you admit the report is about the period when the English Democrats were in power. The Audit Commision does criticise the labour councillors but it attacks the mayors failure to do the job. Anyone reading this can get your views but then read my article which goes through your claims and they should make their own minds up |
Comment by yestomayor Salford ( member ) 21st December 2011
The report clearly states that the Council were affected by the hatred of the Labour Group of councillors against the elected mayor because your party lost power (reason for their hatred). You as leader of the Council used taxpayers money to buy a building as described that ended up being demolished because the council failed to maintain it. You have not at all Cllr merry. Your scaremongering will not detract us from our policy. If we are given a mandate we will proceed as promised. |
Comment by John Merry ( member ) 21st December 2011
What's this annother falsehood. The audit Commission attacked the Englidh Democrat Mayor it was not written about the period when Labour was in power .Wikipedia gives a good summary . I did not buy the Langworthy Hotel it was the SRB board that decided to do so. As for your figures I think most would conclude that I have demolished them fairly comprehensively in my article |
Comment by yestomayor Salford ( member ) 20th December 2011
In terms of the failings you have highlighted in Doncaster Steve M you probably also know that the reports were about the failures when Labour where in control of the Council, hence why the people elected them out ! Under a strong leader model which Cllr merry is fighting to keep in Salford we would not have been able to do that if it happened in Salford. |
Comment by yestomayor Salford ( member ) 20th December 2011
My figures are not trumped up Cllr Merry. You have wasted millions as Leader of our Council and you are not even elected. Even as an elected Mayor you wouldnt get away with this incompetence because the people would vote you out where under the current system we cannot. You know that and that is why you are fighting to keep your cushy number at the town hall. Steve M - I know you have had little or no success YET (I have hope for you) in local politics you are not naive enough to not know that the NO confidence vote was led by labour councillors trying to oust a newly elected English Democrat Mayor who removed them from power in the first place..........come on !!!! You can do better........... |
Comment by SteveM ( member ) 20th December 2011
Ahh yes, I'm glad you mentioned Doncaster - let's examine the "success" of the English Democrat elected mayor who took office in mid-2009. His wikipedia page only scrapes the surface of his "achievements" such as the vote of no confidence by his council less than 8 months after his election. Exactly ONE YEAR after his election to mayor, the government labelled Doncaster the "worst run council in the country" and had to step in and appoint a Chief Executive and three commissioners to lead the council instead. Despite the vote of no confidence, the rejection of the elected mayor's proposed budget, repeated criticism of his "outrageous policies" and the Communities Secretary Eric Pickles stating that measures were needed to turn the council around "after 15 years of poor governance and dysfunctional politics" he has still refused to resign. The poor electorate of Doncaster will have to wait until 2013 to get rid of their elected mayor (although they are trying for ANOTHER EXPENSIVE REFERENDUM to see if they can get rid of him). I've not even mentioned any of the English Democrat mayor's personal failings, such as his description of climate change as "a scam" and his praise and admiration for the Taliban - but I'll end on the English Democrat mayor's legacy for Doncaster... Childrens Services “unacceptably poor” and “in many areas getting worse” and more than half Doncaster's local libraries closed. On a final note, the Doncaster mayoral election is a good model for what "could" happen in Salford. They had 7 candidates on the ballot (with TWO choices allowed per voter) and after the first round of counting, the eventual winner was actually in 2nd place. After counting second preference votes, Peter Davies beat an INDEPENDENT candidate by a mere 354 votes (despite a turnout of 75,000).
My fear is, as with Doncaster, that with so many people disaffected with politics at the moment - we could end up with a low turnout, a long list of crazy candidates and the result for Salford would be a mayor just like Doncaster. That would be disasrous for this city and that's one of the reasons I'll be voting NO in the referendum next month. |
Comment by John Merry ( member ) 20th December 2011
Dont worry we will give the true figures rather than your trumped up list of past capital projects funded by grant and expenditure from the past.This has already been dealt with in other posting. Or do you believe that if you keep repeating the same untruths they will be believed. Surely you as an ex councillor know the difference between capital and revenue? |
Comment by yestomayor Salford ( member ) 20th December 2011
Councillor Merry - no mayor not even you with all your back-up staff can come up with absolute detail about a budget. A Mayor would instruct the officers to devise a budget that entails NO cuts in essential front line services. The vast majority of the savings will be made from the regeneration budget which totals we believe 34 millions each year which equates to around £300.00 per household alone. Other savings will be made but the absolute detail will be finalised if and when we are in a position to get access to the Council's books which a mayor would do. The officers would be instructed to devise several proposals for consideration by the mayor. The would be advised that there is to be no scaremongering on their part and it would be the Mayor that decides where savings lay and whether it is an essential front line service. The Mayoral Alliance would ensure no cuts in essential front line services. It will get rid of pet projects and protect front line services. In recent times you have wasted £500,000 on the pink ice rink, £30,000 per year on tea & biscuits, £410,000 purchasing to Langworthy Hotel to have it demolished (what are the costs of the demolition ?)£500,000 on proms in the park, £670,000 on 3 BBC programmes, £110,000 loss on Ledr Hall, and a £175,000 legal bill in the sacking of Jill Baker just to name a few. You have spent all this money whilst you admittedly yesterday have already forced through voluntary redundancies. The Mayoral Alliance would also immediately assess the assets the council possess and use these assets to raise much needed income, reduce the debt burden on the council and hence interest payments and to minimise any impact of other services that are not essential frontline services. We cannot be more clearer than that. The people of Salford will have a massive cut in their council tax. In tough economic times we believe that their hard-earned cash should be for their families and children, to pay mortgages, look after their family and children not to pay for PET PROJECTS at Salford City Council. And by the way - although the Mayoral Alliance has not decided its policy as to the numbers but we would also look at applying immediately to the government for a cut in the number of councillors as there are too many sat on their backsides doing very little but just collecting councillor allowances and expenses at enormous cost to local people. A similar exercise is taking place in Doncaster which the Mayor there is hoping to save 1.2 million per year. We would also abolish the free use of mobile and unessential phone calls which in Doncaster again saved over £100,000 per annum. Massive savings can be made. A strong mayor can make them and if The Mayoral Alliance is elected in the event of a YES vote we will deliver on our pledges because we will have a mandate too or we get voted out. Its as simple as that Councillor Merry. Now bring on your scaremongering................ which will no doubt get published in the Pro_Labour press as fact when its complete diatribe!!!!! |
Comment by John Merry ( member ) 20th December 2011
As Mr Moulding and others fave failed to disclose the coatings for their false prospectus it seems that others will have to do it for them. It simply is not good enough to say the officers will be required to come up with options . I will give details of what their pledge to "traffordise" services will mean later |
Comment by yestomayor Salford ( member ) 19th December 2011
said* typo sorry |
Comment by yestomayor Salford ( member ) 19th December 2011
and in terms of judgement I agree Hiram. But a candidate for mayor can set his promises like cutting council tax by half or cutting the number of councillors and if elected would have a mandate to this and would use his/her judgement to make decisions to get this done so I agree with most of what you have sai ! :) |
Comment by yestomayor Salford ( member ) 19th December 2011
Hiram I agree with those sentiments but the reality is that whether its local government, national or regional governments we live in a democratic process managed by politics. So in the end even an independent mayor would have to become political because his/her opponents would be and in the case of a Labour opposition that is vociferous and angry at losing power this would be more important. In politics whether we like it or not its the job of the opposition to regain power and they will do this in any way they see fit. But clearly some of the attributes you mentioned are necessary otherwise why would you want to do the job ? What I am saying is that even an independent mayor that stayed independent would still have to be politically astute. That is unfortunate but reality in our democracy. |
Comment by Hiram Abiff ( member ) 19th December 2011
Please explain how anyone can state what an elected mayor will or won't do, surely that will be up to his or her judgement? Seems to me that only way to ensure an unbiased management of our city finances and forward planning would be to have a mayor who is truely independant of any political party, is a proven success in managing large budgets and has a love for this area matched by a realistic vision for its future. Take the politics out of this and replace with genuine love for, and concern about, this great city of ours please. |
Comment by markinM44 ( member ) 18th December 2011
Well done John Merry for identifying the money as ERDF sourced by the NWRDA, so we shook the magic money tree in Brussels and they kindly granted us a few million to tart up chapel street. Just where do you think the EU gets the money from? care to share your thoughts on that one? If its via taxation and UK payments into the EU coffers don't you think that its sourced from UK taxpayers and has just boomeranged its way back via excessive handling charges. |
Comment by yestomayor Salford ( member ) 17th December 2011
In the meeting the other night you admitted to cutting fron line staff through voluntary redundancies yet you still waste millions on pet projects. The sums add up. Fund essential front line services. Cut pet projects and cut local peoples council taxes. Stop the detruction of inner Salford. Stop wrecking Salford's heritage and provide first class essential services. Charge no more in taxes than you should. An Alliance Mayor would do this. |
Comment by John Merry ( member ) 17th December 2011
In the case of chapel st funding came from Europe and the RDA . Others you mentioned were funded by the SRB Budget. Others were cut as part of £44 million cuts this year. I don't want to be unkind at this time of year but I suggest again do your sums. |
Comment by yestomayor Salford ( member ) 17th December 2011
The voting system Cllr Merry is not something I have looked into in great detail. It would not be up to the officers as to whether they believe front line services are affected or not. That would be up to any Mayor once he or she has received the full situation. A Mayor would ensure all detail is provided to ensure that no frontline essential services are affected. That would be the Mayor's decision not scaremongering by the officers or yourself now. |
Comment by SteveM ( member ) 17th December 2011
LOL. I just pointed that out (about the voting system) on another thread. It's 1st and 2nd choices only in the referendum vote. |
Comment by yestomayor Salford ( member ) 17th December 2011
The examples I gave Cllr Merry are where this Council has wasted council tax money not in the tens or hundreds of thousands but in millions. Already spent YES but our Council Tax has not been reduced has it for the abolition of the pink ice rink or anything else has it ? You continue to waste it on other pet projects and no doubt a new mayor would have access to this sheer waste ! |
Comment by John Merry ( member ) 17th December 2011
Every time you comment you just strengthen the view that you have no idea. None of the expenditure you cite is currently in budget and the figures you quote are not there in the budget. Let's just suppose that the officers report back it cannot be achieved without slashing frontline services what do you do then? By the way in another comment you claimed that the voting system is that everyone's 2nd 3rd 4th choice is counted . That is not true only possible 2nd choices are counted and if you cannot even get the voting system right.... |
Comment by yestomayor Salford ( member ) 17th December 2011
any Mayor would instruct and advise the officers...........yes that is their job to do so. |
Comment by yestomayor Salford ( member ) 17th December 2011
No Cllr Merry. We have informed you on many occasions. Any savings would be concentrated around the regeneration budget. Other savings will be found. In a one minute rant here goes - £500,000 wasted on the pink ice rink, £30,000 on tea & biscuits, £410,000 on the purchase of The Langworthy Hotel only for it to be demolished, £670,000 on 3 BBC programmes, £500,000 on Proms in the park, £200,000 salary PA for your Chief Executive and the Chapel Street FIASCO. Over £2 millions wasted written in one minute and we do not even have access to the council's books. Yes any mayor would be advised and instructed to make proposals to set a budget that included a reduction in Council tax by 50%. A mayor would insist on this. Proposals made, adjusted by the mayor and discussions continue until a mayor is satisfied their goal has been achieved without a cut in frontline services. Its not rocket science Cllr Merry as you try to portray it to be. Also, any scaremongering about cuts, not legal or it cannot be done is diatribe. The reality Cllr Merry you have been using millions of local tax payers money over many years to destroy Salfords heritage, rip apart communities in the name of regeneration and neglect outer townships in the process. When campaigning in Langworthy today whole communities destroyed and no doubt Salford people moved out. Homes CPO'd and familys and elderly people shifted. The wrong type of regeneration Cllr Merry and the costliest type. £600 millions in debt Cllr Merry. Have you learned nothing about how the debt-based economy has crippled this country ? |
Comment by John Merry ( member ) 17th December 2011
In other words mike you have not got a clue as to how to do it but will instruct the officers to do it for you. While you are at it you can instruct them to make sure that it will never rain in Salford and that everyone gets free drinks. |
Comment by yestomayor Salford ( member ) 17th December 2011
Our sums are not wrong. A mayor would instruct the officers to finalise a budget that would result in a cut in council tax whilst protecting essential front line services. The scaremongering about the regeneration budget is nonsense. This money is being used to destry Salfords heritage and destroy established local communities. In relation to the existing opposition in this city. They are partly to blame for the mess the council is in because of their weak opposition as demonstrated clearly by Cllr Owen recently. A directly elected mayor is the best chance of getting someone who is accountable to the public. Even a Labour elected mayor is better than an unelected Labour Leader of the council. At least the people elect them where now they dont. |
Comment by John Merry ( member ) 17th December 2011
I am afraid you have got your sums wrong to a greater extent than Mr Berg. At least he accepted other services would have to be cut. The money we spend on regeneration includes grants from central government which are ring fenced and the sustainable regeneration budget includes planning highways and lamposts. I do take exception to the idea the meeting was rigged. It was a public meeting and there were Tories Inderpendants and Lib Dems present . Yes significant numbers of Labour were present but by no means all of the audience. Surely if it was possible to cut the council tax by 50% either the Tories or Lib Dems would have proposed it before now |
Comment by SteveM ( member ) 17th December 2011
Your arguments just aren't making sense. How would the government's grant remain when you've already stated your mayor would cease regeneration? The government only helps to fund regeneration where the council itself invests in such a scheme with it's own money. As for your accusation that the Lib Dems have done little to stop the disastrous Labour regen attempts in Langworthy, perhaps you should do your research a little more (and attend a few council sessions). Cllrs Owen and Drake have been most vocal recently along with former Cllr Ferrer in taking Labour to task. Unfortunately, we have always been outnumbered and outvoted by Labour - even when we held more councillors than we do now. Labour use their majority to push their own ideas through, in a democracy, there is nothing else the opposition can do. On one point we agree, Labour's failure to re-generate inner Salford has destroyed Salford's heritage and has damaged community cohesion. An elected Mayor is not the answer to that Labour failure, more opposition councillors are what's needed! |
Comment by yestomayor Salford ( member ) 17th December 2011
Cheers Jerry. |
Comment by yestomayor Salford ( member ) 17th December 2011
The examples I gave are monies already spent admittedly but the fact is that 34 millions is allocated every year for regeneration. This money is being used to destroy salford's heritage and rip apart communities. Some regeneration would still exist in Salford but it will be a different type of regeneration where Salford's heritage is not destroyed and communities will remain. Any monies will be used to benefit Salfordians. What has been disastrous for Langworthy is the tyoe of regeneration that your party has done very little to stop. The regeneration budget as the whole of the council's budget is predominantly from government grant and council taxes. The government grant would remain and the council can spend this how it chooses including the regeneration budget. Salford's heritage should be preserved not destroyed. |
Comment by SteveM ( member ) 17th December 2011
Michael, funding for re-generation does not come directly from council tax. I'm amazed your alliance does not know that. But ignoring that, how can you say cancelling re-generation would benefit Salford? Labour's half-arsed attempt at re-generation has left the city with large areas of waste land where perfectly good houses used to be (I have been pointing this out for years in Langworthy and Irwell Riverside), to stop now would be catastrophic. Langworthy is finally getting the PFI investment needed in Pendleton thanks to the coalition government after nearly 2 decades of zero re-gen activity from local Labour there - you cannot stop that, it would be disastrous for the hundreds of people living in sub-standard homes across Pendleton.
The other savings you claim you could make have already happened. The money to demolish the Langworthy Hotel has already been spent and the Chapel Street "fiasco" is happening right now. You can't save what has already been spent. What your promising is nothing more than pie in the sky. It's not believable or achievable through the methods you promote. |
Comment by jerry ( member ) 17th December 2011
Don't agree with you Mike, but it's good to see both sides getting a proper shout to get their points across here. |
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