Local Councillors, Paul Myers (Cons., Midsomer Norton, Redfield) and Nathan Hartley, (Independent, Peasedown St John), were left feeling a litte stung after last week's B&NES Council Budget meeting, which after nearly five hours, was approved. Both had brought last-minute amendments to the meeting, in the hope for attention to long-campaigned-for causes, in the case of Cllr Myers, to be told that it was inappropriate to be asking for 'small amounts' (£45,000) in a budget worth millions.
After campaigning for fifteen months and meeting Highways Engineers, Cllr Myers was disappointed that the money to make road adjustments close to the Town Hall and at the top of
Midsomer Norton High Street, to allow carnival floats to travel up through the town, was denied. Cllr Myers asked Councillors to "Please rise above party politics and what I fear is Kafkaesque bureaucracy, for whatever reason, to unite the Somer Valley again through carnival."
Both Labour and the Lib-Dems voted against the amendment, with 27 for and 33 against.
Cllr Hartley's cause was for £20,000 to be ring-fenced for a full refurbishment of the public toilets in Greenlands Road Car Park, which have so far had a reprieve from closure. The amendment received 29 votes in favour, with 33 against and one abstention. Whilst villagers seem to have differing opinions on whether or not the facility should remain open (see letters Page 2), Nathan Hartley said of the budget decision: "This is very disappointing for Peasedown. It was a small ask from a big budget. With so much money being invested in other areas, I was trying to readdress the balance and get some allocated funds for Peasedown – but the Council wasn't prepared to commit to this in writing."
As expected, the Budget saw Council Tax bills frozen for the fourth year in a row, with funding boosts seeing an extra £100,000 for bus services, particularly for new housing developments and a number of concessions for protection for the Council's Advice Services, as well as additional funding for facilities for elderly and disabled people and £50,000 for a new fund to support foster children. An extra £200,000 for Disabled Facilities Grants has been found, with £100,000 to go to Advice Services, which are run for the Council by the Citizens Advice Bureau. An ongoing revenue allocation of £300,000 for 2015/16 onwards has been ring-fenced to further reduce the savings required for Children's Centre services and a sum of £200,000 in 2014/15 to support the transition and implementation of the new delivery model for Early Years and Children's Centre services.
Conservative Councillors came under fire at the meeting for proposing a series of last-minute amendments, which Lib-Dems say totalled over £1 million of unplanned expenditure. Councillor Manda Rigby, Deputy Leader of the Lib-Dem Group, said: "It is completely irresponsible of the Conservative Group to go on a spending spree with the Council reserves. These have a purpose and that is to give this Council some insurance against the next round of Government grant cuts and to ensure the continuing Council Tax freeze that helps our hard-pressed residents."