North Yorkshire’s UKIP county councillors have attacked the government over its latest funding settlement – the fifth worse in the country!
Instead of having to make a further £11m in savings up to 2020, the authority will now have to look where it can save £21m – which will have an impact on frontline services.
North Yorkshire’s funding cut is a 36 per cent reduction compared to 30 per cent for the majority of shire authorities, 21 per cent for metropolitan districts and 19 per cent for inner London authorities.
County Councillor David Simister (Harrogate, Bilton & Nidd Gorge) said:
Yet again the people of North Yorkshire are the ones bearing the brunt of these cuts.
What really galls me is that whilst we will be seeing front line services cut back further and jobs lost, this government hands out more than £12bn in overseas aid.
I want to see money spent here looking after, and supporting, the most vulnerable in society, not transferred into the bank accounts of countries that have their own space programmes!
County Councillor Sam Cross (Filey) said:
This is incredibly bad news for the region and will effect a lot of people. All of North Yorkshire’s MPs are Conservative, yet why are they not fighting our corner?
Just a few months ago they voted themselves a massive pay rise yet we are seeing cuts in fire cover, bus subsidies for children at faith schools scrapped and the county-wide closing of libraries.
There will also have to be a hike in council tax bills and this will result in all of us paying more for less.
David Simister is right to point out that his conservative colleagues are doing precious little to defend the county against the government cuts, but is sadly misguided in blaming foreign aid as being a place where money should not be spent.
How much do wars and needless spending on Trident cost? I would much rather see money spent on saving lives than curtailing them.