In his regular blog for Caerphilly Observer, Caerphilly Council leader Lindsay Whittle gives his take on recent news.
LABOUR LET DOWN THE PEOPLE
Labour councillors are doing a great disservice to the people of the county borough by just burying their heads in the sand over the financial challenges faced by this authority.
At the last policy and resources scrutiny committee, they made it clear that they did not want to be consulted on the issue of jobs within the authority until after all consultations and negotiations were exhausted with the trade unions.
Well, those discussions could never be completely exhausted so what Labour is saying is that they don’t want any input and they’re not interested in working for the best of the county borough residents and our staff. They even refused to let the council’s officers present their reports to the meeting. What sort of responsible opposition is that?
The financial crisis faced by this authority is not of our doing but the mismanagement of the economy by the incompetent New Labour Government and the spending cuts planned by the Con-Dem government in Westminster.
The council is faced by having to make spending cuts of around £36m over the next few years but we will not abrogate our responsibilities to the people of the county borough unlike Labour. And I’m sure the public know where the responsibility lies for the economic mess the UK is in.
CONFUSED THINKING
I was surprised to read Jeff Cuthbert’s comments about the council’s decision to allow free parking in the run-up to Christmas. On the one hand the AM says he realises the importance of attracting shoppers into town centres and helping hard pressed traders.
Then he complains about the loss of revenue. He can’t have it both ways. So I guess we can assume that although Jeff Cuthbert supports local shopkeepers he wouldn’t have done anything to support them. Fortunately, the Plaid-led administration will back our local businesses.
Lindsay Whittle,
Plaid Cymru leader of Caerphilly County Borough Council
Lindsay Whittle accuses me of "confused thinking" about their decision to allow free parking in the run up to Christmas. But in truth all I've done is ask why the Council are granting this whilst at the same time charging for park and ride at railway stations and stating that they'll have to reduce services and jobs because of financial pressures!Interesting he fails to give any answers.