Torbay Labour anger at The Bay's shambolic budget process

The Torbay budgetary process will hit The Bay's most vulnerable

Torbay Labour Party has hit out at the mayor and his ruling Conservative group after what they have described as a shambolic budget process which will lead to increased pressures on the most vulnerable in The Bay.

The party’s chairman, Councillor Darren Cowell, said: “When the mayor was elected he wanted an open and inclusive council and said he would be a listening mayor, regrettably the budget process has blown that out of the water.

“The budget papers made available to opposition councillors, and in some cases even to Tory councillors, have been unclear, lacked detail and clarity and have been the worst example of a smoke and mirrors exercise.

“I am appalled that opposition councillors have had to really scratch deep in to the flesh of the budget to identify some of the true impacts on services and my fear is that the harsh reality is still yet to emerge.”

Cllr Cowell has also hit out at the standard of debate during the five-hour budget meeting. He said: “There were 15 amendments and objections on the agenda tabled by Labour, Non-coalition and the Lib Dems, not one was passed as the Tory majority voted consistently en-bloc.

“We are told there is no whip, but it is incredibly coincidental that the Tory group tended to vote as one. The one notable and creditworthy exception was Cllr James who supported us on three occasions and spoke up for the youth of Torbay.

“What was even more alarming was that it seems many of the Tory councillors had taken a vow of silence. For many of them the only time they used their voice was to say ‘against’ when voting on the amendments.

“The amendments were about serious issues and provided the only opportunity for a meaningful debate about the thinking behind the mayor’s plans. It is very hard to have a proper debate when one side has decided not to participate.

“Supporters of the libraries told me afterwards that they were truly shocked at the poor standard of debate and disregard they witnessed. I was horrified when I heard Cllr Tyerman shout out, ‘makes you want to go further next year’ as library supporters stormed out after the vote.

Cllr Cowell concluded, “I don’t know why I am surprised at the cavalier attitude of this Tory mayor and council, he has not listened to any of the feedback during the farcical consultation process, or indeed the Overview and Scrutiny Board recommendations.

“Why would anyone be surprised when a Tory council votes against measures to protect the most vulnerable in our community; our young, our old, our unemployed, our residents with learning disabilities and instead continue to write a cheque for the conference centre without them having to make any savings.”

(from a press release)

(Torbay view from Torquay: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.)

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