February 18, 2009

Lib Dem’s Budget Bungle

Salford council was forced to adjourn its Budget debate today (Feb 18) after Liberal Democrats needed advice on what their alternative proposals meant.
Salford City Council leader Cllr John Merry described the Lib Dem budget bungle as ‘a shambles’.
Lib Dem finance spokesperson Cllr Joe O’Neill spoke in the debate to urge his alternative proposals to the Council meeting. But when it came to the vote, he could not

  • say what the wording of his amendment was
  • say what impact it would have on the council tax
  • say how £2 million savings would be made

Council deputy leader Cllr David Lancaster said: “This is a discourtesy to the council. How can we vote on something that we don’t know about?”
He moved an adjournment so council finance officers could meet with Lib Dems to explain to them what their budget meant. After a 15-minute break the Lib Dems proposed a 0.56p cut in the weekly bill.
The ruling Labour group’s budget was overwhelmingly approved. It keeps the Council Tax rise down to 3% for council services.
Finance spokesman Cllr Bill Hinds said: “I am confident that we will have one of the lowest tax increases in the country, achieved without compulsory redundancies or service cuts”.
February 18th 2009 Posted to General, Liberal Democrats, Local Issues

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February 15, 2009

Pendlebury by-election – Candidate Selected

Forced to fight this election early I am pleased to announce that the Labour candidate for Pendlebury will be John Ferguson.

John is a hard working party member and excellent candidate.

All contact details for John can be found here: http://www.salfordlabour.org.uk/?page_id=39

We all look forward to working with John in the upcoming campaign.

February 15th 2009 Posted to Branches, Pendlebury

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February 13, 2009

Early by-election

The three major parties (Labour, Conservatives & liberal Democrats) all agreed it would be better to spare the tax payers the expense of an early election when we have a European election in June. Common sense from all.

However one extremist party has no such concern for the tax payers in a credit down turn and could not wait to trigger an election and all the associated expense to the city! Shame on them.

They have done nothing illegal, but I cannot help thinking we are funding a canvass for the European election at the taxpayers expense for this shameful party, who’s name I cannot bring myself to mention.

February 13th 2009 Posted to Pendlebury

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