THE LEADER of the Thurrock Conservatives, cllr Rob Gledhill has reacted with anger after Labour had pinned the blame on the £37 million pounds worth of cuts to be made to council services, on the coalition government.
Cllr Gledhill said:
"Yet again Thurrock’s Labour Leadership shows that it is still suffering from political amnesia, over why the amount of tax payers money being given to councils has reduced. So as a reminder, the reason that Councils and other other taxpayer funded organisations have had financial support reduced is because the previous Labour Government spent £6 for every £4 of tax it collected from the nation. This left every man, woman and child a nation debt bill of over £20,000 EACH. So instead of Labour’s to spend no matter what the outcome policies, the coalition government has correctly adopted a policy of austerity. These policies have been backed by the IMF and the UK now has one of the fastest growing economies in the world, rather than one of the largest national debts as it did under the last Labour government.
When it comes to ‘blaming’ anyone, Cllr Holloway should remember that on the Cabinet agenda that night were three savings ideas proposed by Thurrock Conservatives.
Looking at alternative provision for theatre in Thurrock, potentially saving nearly £400,000, and alternative running of Grangewaters, are both Conservative proposals from 4 years ago; proposals that Labour objected to quite vehemently and indeed based their whole election campaign on.
The third is LED lighting – this was also a proposal by Thurrock Conservatives and was put into the budget three years ago. However, this again was kicked into the long grass by Labour, meaning Thurrock taxpayers money was poured into the coffers of the electricity companies rather than being spent wisely.
I assume that no one is forcing her to undertake her Cabinet role, so when it comes to blame Cllr Holloway should look to herself, and the rest of the Labour leadership, and take responsibility for her actions.
