Bye the Bye – 23 February 2011

By the time you read this, we shall all know if Torbay Council has an agreed budget for 2011/12. For those who have been following this process, you will know I made my initial budget proposals in December. Then, through January, Overview and Scrutiny Councillors together with the wider community, looked in detail at these proposals at the same time as Officers were working to identify a further £1.75 million which could be added back into the budget.

My February proposals, considered by a meeting of the Full Council, included substantial additional sums for Adult Social Care, Children’s Services, CCTV live coverage during the busiest times and enough to keep the street lights on in our residential areas until 1.00am., or 1 in 4 lights on all night. I also proposed that the Acorn Centre should receive 100% of its previous year’s grant; also the Coast and Countryside Trust, the Torquay and Brixham Museums should get 95% of their previous grants.

In the context of the misery unfolding in Town Halls up and down the land, with hundreds and thousands of redundancies being announced and precious services axed, I regard it with some pride that Torbay Council has been able to handle all these cuts so elegantly. Indeed, the £4 million (nearly) in efficiency savings we have found, including a reduction in the Council’s top team, is something which might even put a smile on the face of dear Eric Pickles, who is giving daily lectures on this very subject.

I have also pointed out to Councillors I have not, for the first time in five years, received one letter, email or comment from a member of the community (as opposed to an organisation) concerning these budget proposals. Folks outside the Town Hall seem to have a better understanding of the problems the Council faces and even some sympathy towards those of us who are trying to ensure there is a balanced budget.

Indeed, I would go further and suggest folks may even rather like the way in which members of two different political parties are working in Coalition at Westminster, trying to balance the nation’s books. Like me, some people may have reservations concerning the pace at which these savings are being made and the rather arbitrary way in which some areas, most notably local government, are being ‘hit’ in preference to others. But it is generally appreciated no organisation or business can live beyond its means forever, and unless there is a clear plan to rapidly reduce the public sector borrowing requirement, then we shall eventually be faced with similar problems to some of the Euro countries, or similar problems older readers will remember from the 1970’s in the UK.

It is a shame, therefore, such an example of Coalition working cannot be replicated in Torbay Council. It is not just a case members of the different parties cannot see eye to eye. It seems members of the same majority party want to vote against their Mayor and Cabinet colleagues. The 9 February Council meeting was a complete shambles, with Councillors making requests for me to find substantial sums of money which everybody knows does not exist.

Following this inconclusive meeting, I wrote to all Councillors, personally, asking what their priorities were and where the extra money might come from?

Like an old fashioned schoolmaster I have to inform you (it sounds like a school report!) of those candidates who bothered to attempt the exam paper, most showed more enthusiasm tackling the first question than the second.

So at last week’s Cabinet meeting I decided to stick to my guns and my budget proposals will stand, unless a clear majority of Councillors decide to go against all professional advice and hit the reserves, which will only make matters worse for next year.

The tragedy of all this is Councillors, who could take pride in their own Council and its achievements, now want to be the first to criticise. Inevitably, in any large organisation such as a Unitary Council, delivering hundreds of services to thousands of people, things will go wrong from time to time.

But, with one exception, all the principle services of this Council have improved over the last five years, as well as residents enjoying lower Council Tax rises and lower bills than in neighbouring authorities.

You would think Councillors would be proud of this. Frankly I do not understand the politics of this self criticism.

Every time they run to the paper and say ‘look! Here’s another cock up!’, the thoughtful reader will be thinking: ‘aren’t you lot supposed to be in charge?’

The Overview and Scrutiny report on the implementation of the new system of waste collection was a classic. Councillors (supported by Officers) must have spent hours on a report full of ‘lessons to be learned’.

I have a secret to share, dear readers. Even if I stayed in office for another thousand years, I consider it extremely unlikely I shall be changing the bins again. Most reasonable people understood it was something which simply had to be done. Our recycling rates have already shot up and we are on course to save ourselves £1 million pa. End of story.

The fact that Councillors want to agonise over the poor implementation, when Torbay faces so many other more serious challenges, is completely beyond me. The fact is every local authority which has ever changed its collection system has faced similar problems (I remember the upset in Teignbridge a few years ago). I wonder if anywhere has ever managed to do it smoothly?

Perhaps the ‘Candidates Cafe’ for would be Councillors (and Mayors) might attract people with a more positive attitude to life.

These sessions, with Yours Truly on hand, are taking place at the

Berry Head Hotel, Wednesday 2 March 6.00pm. – 9.00pm.

Paignton Library, Wednesday 9 March 2.00pm. – 5.00pm. and

Town Hall, Torquay Tuesday 15 March 6.00pm. – 9.00pm.

See you there.

Finally, I was amused by the response to occasional Herald Express letter writer Henry Fletchers’ comments about jogging and his request for a non-jogging Mayor. Henry lives in Higher Warberry Road and might not be aware this Mayor jogs along Middle Warberry Road en route to Ilsham Valley and Meadfoot Beach at the crack of dawn, three or four mornings a week.

Perhaps I should change my route. But the early morning jogging is what blows the cobwebs away and gives me the stamina to do battle at the Town Hall.utchins

A jogging Mayor is exactly what is needed.

Nick Bye

Mayor of Torbay