At Wednesday's budget meeting, the Lib Dems presented their budget proposals, which focused on introducing extra parking charges and not cutting the grass verges.
Shocked Conservative Councillors listened as the Liberal Democrats outlined their plans to stop cutting the grass verges and to introduce a night time tax of £2 to park in the Town Centre.
Conservative Council Leader, Louise McKinlay said, "I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The Liberals'
plans would leave our borough looking a right mess; with grass up around our necks, front line jobs under threat and mayhem and expense for residents wanting to park their cars when they come home from work at night. You'll be pleased to know, we did not support these proposals!"
In stark contrast, the Conservatives delivered a fully costed and sustainable budget, a 1.5% Council Tax cut, along with EXTRA investment and new services for the borough.
Other opposition parties failed to submit any proposals at all, with one claiming they didn't have time, despite taking up around 20 hours of the Lead Finance Officer's time, at a wasted cost of £820 to Brentwood taxpayers.
Louise added, "So, for what is the most important Council meeting of the year as it sets residents' council tax, decides on services for Brentwood and agrees big capital spend, they run out of time. It's hardly putting Brentwood first, now is it..?"
Deputy Leader, Roger Hirst added, "The actions of the opposition parties prove that once again only the Conservatives can be trusted to run the Council. We have a history of low council tax bills and service investment and our budget shows that we can do more with less. Unlike the opposition, better procurement, renegotiating contracts and cutting running costs, not services form the basis of our approach."
The approved Conservative budget saw not only the council tax cut, leading to a real 16% reduction in our council tax rate relative to inflation since 2009 but also endorsed extra investment in the following key areas:
- Free parking introduced across Brentwood for 30 mins in all Council owned carparks
- Provision of free food waste recycling bags
- £1.5m investment for a park and stride /ride scheme for Shenfield
- £100k investment in public realm for the Shenfield and Brentwood Stations areas.
- Introduction of a new "Green Redeem" schemes, which will reward residents for recycling, whilst also supporting local businesses
- £100k investment in children's play areas
- £50k for some additional pre-emptive tree work
- Continuation of the popular Neighbourhood Action Teams, to focus on keeping our Borough looking tidy
- Maintenance of Ward Budgets to fund localised projects