A decision by Caerphilly County Borough Council to cut £100,000 from the road surfacing budget has led to a fierce dispute between the Labour and Plaid Cymru groups.
Cllr Lyn Ackerman, who is the Plaid Cymru candidate for Islwyn in May’s Assembly election, said: “Taking a six figure sum from the highways budget for surface dressing is bound to have an impact on our roads. It is a false economy.
“Caerphilly’s Labour leaders should take a look at the streets of Cardiff and see the number of pot-holed roads to understand the impact of not spending enough money keeping our roads in good condition. Is that what we want for Caerphilly County Borough?”
A further £200,000 cut is proposed for 2017/18.
Plaid Cymru’s spokesperson for highways Councillor Rob Gough said: “I can see this short-term approach leading to more claims for compensation from motorists with an increased bill. Highways has a large budget so it is easy pickings when it comes to cuts. But with heavy sustained rainfall we have had since October there is damage to the highway surface and drainage.”
Labour have hit back at the claims.
A Labour group spokesperson said: “Once again the Nationalists say where money should not be taken from but refuse to say how they would identify savings of £9.5 million for 2016/17. At the recent budget setting meeting, embarrassingly they could not even produce an alternative to Labour’s budget, which protects front line services for our most vulnerable residents, protects jobs and which also agreed the lowest council tax increase in the whole of Wales.
“Perhaps Cllr Ackerman would prefer to cut the Social Services budget, as her party did when they took £1million from essential services for the elderly across the borough. Let her and her Nationalist colleagues have the courage to produce their savings proposals for the people of the Borough to have the opportunity to be consulted”.
Council tax is to increase by 1% next year for residents in Caerphilly County Borough Council, the lowest in Wales, after councillors voted through next year’s budget at a meeting of full council on Wednesday, February 24.
Council leaders had originally warned of a tax hike of around 3.9% for next year, but a better than expected financial settlement from the Welsh Government meant the figure was lower.
The 1% increase equates to 19p extra per week for a Band D property.
When the council waste money on pay rises, excessive local councillors, vanity projects, and all sorts of other things the £100000 cut is needed.It would be preferable to cut other things first but CCBC seem to like cutting the things that affect the highest number of people before anything else.
That is right, there are many things that can be cut before the road repair programme is reduced. The anonymous ‘council spokesperson’ even said ‘Labour’s budget protects jobs.’ The council is not funded by us in order to protect jobs it is there to provide the services we ask for, via the ballot box, in a cost effective manner.
It’s little use cutting the budget when the council are getting in cowboys to resurface the roads, and resurfacing the wrong roads. My road was resurfaced by a bunch of idiots who I doubt knew one end of a spade from the other. They blocked the drains with tarmac and covered the newly laid pavement in it, no more than 12 months after it was laid it was breaking up in large chunks and now looks no better than it did before what they laughably call resurfacing took place.
The resurfacing you describe, done on the cheap, was evolved under the last Plaid Cymru administration, they severly cut the HIGWAYS BUGETS, ( see Cabinet Papers for 2010). The short term measures the Council Engineers were told to come up with, ( against much opposition of the Council by those professional Highways engineers) was to make the roads look like new, make the rear lanes look new, and create an elllusion of new roads and lanes, they even extended the same process to some footpaths. NO repairs were made and the system soon fell apart. We are now suffering the results of those short term measures meant to convince residents to vote for them.
The Labour administration now have to work on budget priorities, and are the condition of roads and lanes a real priority? I happen to think they are, and potential cuts to the highways bugets does nothing to meet this priority, the Council could of course transfer the money equivalent to this cost cutting amount, from the EVENTS DEPARTMENT budget, or, from the CAERPHILLY SAFETY PARTNERSHIP budgets, both top heavy with undemocratic expenditure processes, both budgets spending more money year on year on things which have little or no positive impact on most residents lives, both departments judged to be heavily cost negative.
There are also other spending department budgets which are obese and provide little or no measurable positive benefit to residents lives, and Councillors should take a serious look at these, Cabinet Members are reluctant to CUT their respective departments budgets and are subject to huge pressure from their department heads to preserve and increase thier budgets, the weakest Cabinet Members departments then lose out disproportionatly.
I`m disappointed to say I have only ever voted Labour and I regret it as they can`t stand up to their responsibilities and are always blaming others
As you can see from my `alta ego` I once. once, voted in support of The Welsh Nationalist, I could explain how that come about but I dont like thinking about it, in fact I get severe nose bleeds just thinking about my impetuosity at the time. So unlike you, I am not JUST disappointed to have supported a Welsh Nationalist politician, I am disgusted I ever did so. A failed party, complete failed policies and a history of failing real Welshmen and women by thier crude and rude approach to their opposition. Two exceptions? Leanns Wood, and Lindsay Whittle.
Maybe you should read through your posts before posting them.
I asure you I comprehend every word of what I say