Lib Dems alternative budget would increase spending on roads and pavements and cancel the Garden Tax

At an Ealing Council meeting last night Liberal Democrats put forward an alternative budget which would have meant an extra £1.6 million would have been spent on roads and paving across the borough, as well as getting rid of the garden tax.

Sadly the Ealing Labour Party voted against our fully costed and approved budget it will mean that residents will still have to pay £40 to have their garden waste collected on top of the Council Tax.

On the doorstep we are constantly are told that people are sick of having to pay the garden tax. It is a stealth tax. Only the Liberal Democrats put forward proposals to ensure the Council spend more on maintaining our roads and pavements. Both the Tories and Labour party voted again this sensible plan.

Ealing Lib Dems

In my speech I gave a summary of what Labour-run Ealing Council has done over the past four year and it does not read well...

• Cutting of enviro-crime officers
• Cutting of many Park Rangers
• Cutting respite care
• Cutting transport services for the vulnerable
• Cutting Sheltered Housing provision
• Culling of numerous day centres. Numbers of disabled and vulnerable residents will suffer. Elderly and the disabled. I expected more of Labour!
• Then cuts to the very sheltered housing
• People waiting too long to speak to staff when they call the Council
• Our streets dirty and unclean - STILL

Looking at my home ward of Southfield, only two roads have been resurfaced in the past four years. The Liberal Democrat amendment would have helped many roads in Southfield as well as the whole borough.

In the forthcoming local elections on May 2012 people will have the choice to vote Lib Dem for a party who are hardworking all year round and in opposition focus on what the Council needs to do to treat residents fairly, whether the administration does not agree to sensible proposals.