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02/03/09 : No cuts in public services
and just 3.99% increase in Council Tax :
Labour's budget proposals were carried through the Council on 2 March at the third attempt - proposals that make no cuts in public services and put more resources into community care, child protection, dealing with the private rented sector, and maintaining our prized system of bus passes for the elderly and disabled.
Council Tax was increased by just 3.99%, the same sort of increase as in neighbouring Tory Councils who cut their services from a base already much lower than Reading's.
Labour Leader Jo Lovelock says: "We had a solid, worked-through budget and though we had to compromise a bit with the LibDems to get it through the Council it is very much Labour's budget that will provide quality services for the people of Reading in the coming year.
"Both the other parties did fantasy-budgeting. The Tories claimed they could freeze Council Tax, refused to say where the £2.8M of cuts was going to come from, put up not a single proposal of their own, and voted against everybody else's. Their behaviour was completely irresponsible.
"The LibDems began by calling for £.75M of "savings", which would have affected areas like child protection, transporting sick children to school, care for the elderly and refuse collection, and we had to convince them otherwise!
"But the town now has a real budget that will protect services and take Reading forward into the future."
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