In his regular blog for Caerphilly Observer, Caerphilly Council leader Lindsay Whittle gives his take on recent news.
YES FOR WALES
I was delighted at the overwhelming Yes vote in last week’s referendum. It was a great result for Wales.
The result showed, despite the turnout, that people don’t want to go cap in hand to Westminster for Welsh laws. We can do it ourselves in the same way as the Scottish or Northern Irish.
What I was particularly pleased at was the result in Caerphilly County Borough where almost 65 per cent voted Yes.
As was said during the campaign Wales needed to have the tools to do the work the people expect. They now have them.
As the referendum is over my attention will now turn to May’s Welsh General Election in May where I will be campaigning hard for Plaid Cymru AMs to be elected.
As Caerphilly Observer readers know, Ron Davies, the architect of devolution, will be standing in Caerphilly and I hope voters will back him. The Welsh Assembly needs politicians of his calibre, particularly with the power to make laws themselves without going to London.
COUNCIL TAX
It’s official. Caerphilly’s zero increase in council tax was the lowest in Wales. And the Plaid-led council will be pulling out all the stops to repeat that next year while protecting frontline services.
Labour has tried desperately to talk down our decision but this was about helping individuals and families trying to balance their budgets in these terribly difficult times with pay freezes and job losses.
Of course, people in Caerphilly are used to paying hefty council tax rises when Labour ran the council so I wasn’t surprised when they criticised our decision to freeze bills.
Despite many appeals Caerphilly’s Labour AM has refused to say how much he would have put council tax up by. His silence says it all.
We’ve also recognised the plight of young people struggling to find work by committing ourselves to offering 100 apprenticeships and trainees over next three years.
While Labour controlled Rhondda Cynon Taff put up council tax by almost three per cent while cutting the pay of many low-paid employees.
Again, silence from our AM – no word of condemnation there. Imagine if the Plaid-run authority in Caerphilly had treated its workers in the same way – he would have been shouting from the rooftops.
Lindsay Whittle
Plaid Cymru leader of Caerphilly County Borough Council
I see that Plaid in Caerphilly are still pusuing this nosense about asking me what I would put the rate up to. Of course, that's their job. And they've said no increase. The only Council in Wales to do so! They claim that they'll offer 100 apprenticeships but they make no mention of saving jobs. Can they tell us how many jobs have been lost since they took over in 2008?
At a meeting in Nelson last Monday I was told that the Council has to make about £280,000 in efficiency savings next Financial Year. So how are they able to do all this without raising revenue? No doubbt they're planning "stealth taxes" and job cut backs. Even allowing for a rate rise in Newport a Band D property there is still less that in Caerphilly. Have Plaid in Caerphilly been preparing over the last few years to get away with a zero increase this and next year?
As an antidote to Plaid's politically-motivated attacks on the local AM, I think this makes good reading:
http://waleshome.org/2011/03/the-engineer/
Linday Whittle must think that everybody living in the local authority must have been born yesterday if he thinks that a council tax freeze for this year (Assembly election year)and for 2012(local government election year) will pull the wool over the electors eyes. He says that the decision to freeze council tax for the next two years is to help individuals and families to stay affloat in tough economic times. I ask Lindsay Whittle what his plans are for 2013 in relation to council tax rates?. The council leader is strangely less forthcoming with this information and I beleive the electors will see through his cynical politics.
On another note, Lindsay Whittle's emphatic endorsement of Ron Davies as the Plaid candidate for the forthcoming Assembly election must realy stick in his colleagues throats. "The Welsh Assembly needs politicians of his calibre". I dont think the Welsh Assembly or Caerphilly needs somebody who changes his political allegiance every time the wind changes. Surely it is a huge smack in the face to all Plaid Cymru councillors and other potential candidates that Ron Davies who has been in the party for five minutes is seen as the best candidate to fight the Caerphilly seat in May.
Dear Sir.
Mr Jeff Cuthbert states,that Plaid in Caerphilly are talking nonsence in asking him what would he put the rates up to in Caerphilly.As usual no anwswer from him,Can he please tell the residents of Caerphilly does he support the three per cent rise and job cuts by the labour party in Rhonda,Cynon,Taff,I have asked him this before. please give a honest anwswer now.Any freeze in rates must be good for the residents of Caerphilly in these hard times.Yes the residents know there are elections in May.
David T Smith.
Oh dear Mr Cuthbert – Of course it is up to the elected members of Caerphilly county borough to set the council tax (which they did by 40 votes to 26). But when the Assembly Member for Caerphilly hides in the bushes with his sniper rifle to shoot holes in the Zero Council Tax rise, then serious questions have to be asked about his commitment to his constituents when blindly following his his local Labour opposition Group in their efforts to discredit a balanced budget.
In answer to his question. I can inform Mr Cuthbert that there have been NO COMPULSORY REDUNDANCIES in Caerphilly county borough since Plaid have been in charge. This means that we have not followed the appalling example set by his comrades in Neath Port Talbot, Merthyr or RCT, who have totally ignored the workforce representations and served notice on thousands of their employees.
I understand that it must be a bitter pill for him to swallow and to witness the achievements of Plaid in Caerphilly in successfully introducing;- Equal Pay, Job Evaluation, Single Status, NO INCREASE IN LOCAL COUNCIL TAX and no compulsory redundancies.
Allan Pritchard
Cabinet Member for Human Resources
I think that Cllr Pritchard might be disingenuous. I asked about job losses not compulsary redundancies. According to a letter today in the Rhymney Valley Express, 1600 jobs have gone since this Plaid Council took over in 2008.
A gimmick for two years,my council tax remaining the same,we need more gimmicks like this mr Whittle.
Good to see that Plaid have mobilised their troops to come out in support of their Assembly candidates whenever they spout out Council propaganda on here!
Still, if my party was 29 points behind Labour in the polls and also below the Tories – even after the successfull Referendum result – I'd be frustrated and resorting to electioneering gimmicks as well.
A gimmick ??,
The setting of a balanced budget that is helping thousands of people within Caerphilly for not one, but for two years by delivering a 0 % council tax increase, but What I would like to know is, what do they call the mismanagement of the economy and the lack of regulation that allowed this crisis to happen in the first place by the Labour party which Jeff is part off? Jeff does not seem to realize that people are hurting now financially in the area he represents and that this will get worse becasue of his partys bail out of the banks, yet he’s trying to suggest a 0 % council tax increase for the next two years is a bad thing? come on Jeff get real, you should be praising the council for helping the residents you represent within Caerphilly, because if this is your attitude I look forward to you being replaced with someone that does care !!
it is a well known fact that, when Councils keep the tax down for political purposes, the outcome down the line is usually unpleasant for us all.Wouldn't it have been better to make a modest increase now and try to save at least some of the job losses and services in the future. It's not difficult.'No compulsory redundancies' does not mean that there are no job losses. When you are out of work or being deprived of an essential Council service, its all the same to you.In their desperation to get Ron Davies into the Assembly, Plaid are resorting to every kind of gimmick including this one, and to hell with the consequences. They obviously don't expect to be in power in two years time when the Council Tax will have to rocket to pay for their folly.We should have been warned of Plaid's fiscal awareness when the invested in a Bank that everyone knew was going bust.
Mr Cuthbert is so out of touch with reality.
In response the the wild claim made by Mr Cuthbert that "1,600 jobs have gone since Plaid took control of this council in 2008".
If he had taken the trouble to consult with Cllr Gerald Jones, the Deputy Leader of his Labour Group on the council, he could have made an informed statement on the actual number of efficiency savings and voluntary redundancies and natural wasteage that have taken place under Plaid.
Cllr Gerald Jones was provided with detailed information on this matter on the 22nd February 2011. The actual number of full time jobs had reduced by 133 and not, as claimed by Mr Cuthbert to be 1,600.
I know it sounds like common sense, but I would have thought that the Aseembly Member for Caerphilly would have at least consulted with the Deputy Leader of the Labour Group who was in posession of these facts before making such an inflated statement in the press.
Allan Pritchard, Cabinet Member for Human Resources CCBC