The budget has been on many peoples minds over the past month.
First we had the Town Council budget reduced as the Borough Council requested it to keep it down this year in order to help the Borough. The reason is that the government sets how much money each local authority can raise locally, and as Town/Parish Councils are deemed to not really represent local communities, any money they raise is considered as being raised by the district council. This is just a long winded way of saying that any money, which is not capped by the way, raised by Town/Parish Councils is added to the Borough total. The good thing is that this money is raised in the town for the benefit of the town, unlike the rest that is raised.

National government is doing its’ best not to raise direct taxation, and piling it on indirect taxes in order to say, quiet honestly, it has not raised direct taxation and has indeed reduced it. This is all in accord with the idea of passing control of services down the line to local people, and you can’t get much nearer than our Town Council.

The County and Borough Councils are having more responsibility passed to them by higher authorities without the ability to raise money to pay for them. This situation has been occurring down to Borough level over the past few years (not just the present Labour government, but the Conservatives are guilty as well). As the Borough are ‘debt free’, they have been in the enviable position of having plenty in reserve, and able to provide those ‘extra’ services without worrying to much about passing on the full cost to the whole community.
This ‘debt free’ situation came about through a combination of good luck, government decisions, and acting on advice from officers. The decision to provide a ‘right to buy’ law combined with the transfer of Commission housing stock to local authorities, led to a windfall sum of money which our Council decided to use to pay off all the debts. Hence ‘debt free’. Not all authorities did this. For example, Bracknell decided to spend it and retain its debt. Borough officers spotted this situation during the last Council (well done Cllr Keith White) in forming an alliance of Councils who had made differing decisions and would, through no fault of their own (luck again!) be in a position where local taxpayers would suffer. Representations are still being made to national government to correct this situation which may result in Dacorum money being given to Boroughs such as Bracknell, because of a lucky decision made a number of years ago.
Now you have a bit more background to the situation, we now have the Borough passing the buck down to Town/Parish Councils where possible. It looks as though the Town Warden scheme may ‘devolve down to the Town Council. The Shopmobility trial lasts from May to November with Borough funding and they are looking to the Town Council to pick up any costs afterwards if it is to continue. The Town Centre Management proposal would have to be funded locally under the present cut backs.
It was very telling during the Town Council ‘debate’ on the budget that the leader, Cllr Stanley Sharpe, (Hi, Stanley - keep improving so we can ‘argue’ over matters again) pointed out that in the ‘old’ days, before the last Independent Council, the budget was easy - take the previous years figures, add inflation and that was it. Now they have to think, make plans and explain. The Conservatives still haven’t quite caught on yet to what goes on, although the Lib-Dem's have, they are short of expertise in actually executing any plans they make.

This situation is difficult to understand as the Lib-Dem's have always strived to get decision making back to the ‘point of service’, but every time the Borough suggests anything to the Lib-Dem Town Council, every excuse is made as to why the Borough should do it rather than the Town Council. This I find very strange as during my time as a Councillor I was made very aware of what can be done at a local level, indeed, local committees are very effective in Hampshire and Dorset and I know of at least one Town Council who were looking to improve the County library service in the Town. The Town Clerk got off his bum, negotiated a deal with the County Council to provide an improved library, art gallery and council offices all in one building. Even Amersham has its own staff for street lighting and other functions. What do we have - not a lot apart from allotments and a reluctance by the Council to get involved. Even the De-Lisle clock was claimed by the current mayor to be part of the millennium project of the current council. He carefully forgot that it was looked at several times, along with the Mayors (now the Heritage) Walk during the 91/95 Council, of which he was part, and because of lack of funding or otherwise, couldn’t be proceeded with. It was the additional money and effort of the 95/99 Council which made those events happen.

Consult and listen, appear to be the watchwords for our local Councils for the coming year.
National government has been issuing so many directives and coloured papers since it came into power just three years ago (was it really only three years ago?) that local Councillors and officers don’t know whether they are coming or going, so why not take the easy way and blame the local residents?
I’m beginning to feel that policies are not thought through, but with such a short time to make a mark, what do you expect?
The Labour government seems to be set for at least one more period in office as they had such a large majority, but just in case, during the period 1997/99, consultation documents came so fast complete with short response times, that the sheer weight of material overwhelmed many consultees. This included both the Borough and Town Councils which are now having to suffer the consequences. We are getting mixed messages, with national government attempting to devolve power down to local authorities, but needing to raise money without anyone noticing. The Chancellor has done well by inheriting an economy that was on the up, kept the promise of not increasing income tax, shifting the responsibility (and the costs) of many things that affect our daily lives down to local government. If the ploy succeeds, it gets the credit, if it fails - well, it wasn’t us gov! More money is being siphoned out of the economy, by indirect taxation without any apparent benefit to anyone. Even the ‘thing’ at Greenwich was funded by indirect taxation (lottery) as were other large projects. Add to that the £22,000,000,000,000 (it was £22 billion, wasn’t it - that’s £22 million million?) raised just for the right to use a free resource, and it makes you wonder why they want to ‘claw back’ money that our Borough council carefully used to reduce our local tax and improve services.
During the 1995/99, you may recall, I was leader of the Independent group on the Borough Council. The two originals were joined by 5 Labour members where were fed up with being just voting fodder and not being told what or why. They were astounded when they found I ran a ‘democratic’ system whereby they were informed of all material I received from officers, outside bodies and national government. It appears this is not the normal way you organise politics. I made the mistake of allowing decisions to be made by the group, rather than by the leadership.
At least in my case, the Labour group managed to hold onto its’ members for 3 of the 4 years. For the Conservatives to lose a member after only one year, particularly with the ‘balance’ so close is careless, rather than unfortunate. If you then remember that they actually allowed members to take a holiday last year, without making any arrangements for cover during important votes on decisions, then concern has to be expressed on the leadership of the local party.
I suppose it is the penalty you pay. I cannot believe that the likes of Keith White (leader - Labour group) or Stanley Sharpe (actual leader of Lib-Dem's) allowing that sort of difficulty being allowed to interfere with the grand plan. It is apparent on the Town Council, that when Cllr Sharpe either is not in attendance or not issued his instructions, his band of men (and women) start to think for themselves and say what they believe, rather than toe the party line. This came out at the Towns Annual meeting when Cllr Sharpe didn’t attend and promises made without any intention of being carried out or thought through.

Without the guidance of Cllr Sharpe and the wisdom of Cllr Brookes, whom I understand will be leaving these shores for an extended stay in warmer climes, we may actually see one or more of the following:

A Closing Lower Kings Road to through traffic between Waitrose and High Street.

B Information Centre on the corner of Lower Kings Road.

C Improved youth facilities at the eastern end of the town (including skateboarding)

D Urban footpaths with lighting.

E The minor difficulties with the building on the corner of Three Close Lane and High Street being resolved. My stepfather reminded me the other day that he and my father used to go scrumping in the orchard of the derelict house that originally stood on the site - nothing changes does it?