'This budget was one of the best ever'
THE budget to pay for council services for the coming financial year has been historic.
It is the first time in its 14-year history that North East Lincolnshire Council's budget was welcomed unanimously.
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Leader of North East Lincolnshire Council Andrew De Freitas, left, and deputy leader of North East Lincolnshire Council Tony McCabe outside Grimsby Town Hall.
The ruling Liberal Democrat Group embraced the amendments of both Conservative and Labour Groups on the 42-seat council, the only exception being the plan to scrap the civic newsletter Linc-Up, which was ditched.
Scrapping it could have saved £105,000 of taxpayers' money but instead, councillors agreed to cut the cost of its production and reduce the monthly publication to a quarterly newsletter.
As reported, more money will be spent on hi-tech care for the elderly using more monitors which detect movement in the person's home.
There will also more spent on keeping the streets and parks of North East Lincolnshire cleaner. Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Immingham will have a specialist automated cleaning machine called Fido, which clears dog mess, glass and sharp objects.
And up to £105,000 extra will be spent on events to attract more visitors to extravaganzas such as the Cleethorpes bonfire, kite festival and Cleethorpes Carnival.
Proposing a zero per cent increase in the council tax, Council leader, Cllr Andrew De Freitas said it was an "historic" budget which froze the council's share of the council tax but also met the council priorities for services.
The freeze makes the average Band 'D' property owner's council tax at about £1,246.
Cllr De Freitas said improvements to services would be accelerated with a £1-million windfall for street cleaning, insulation and In Bloom projects.
He defended the Linc-Up newsletter and denied opposition claims it was a "propaganda newspaper for the Liberal Democrats" and "a waste of money."
But Cllr John Fenty said 93 per cent of people surveyed in a Conservative poll said the £105,000 the newsletter cost should be saved and spent on tourism.
Cllr Melanie Dickerson (Con, Wolds)0 welcomed the investment in elderly care with telemedicine monitors. She said for every £1 of the £300,000 council investment the NHS would save up to £12.60.
Later Cllr Malcolm Morland (Lib Dem, Sidney Sussex) said the investment in telemedicine and the other amendments were one-off investments and would not be repeated next year. A council tax rise of three per cent is expected next year, as reported.
Cllr Keith Watkin (Ind, West Marsh) said: "It was one of the best budgets I have been at in more than 10 years. the Independents had a role to play and it was good we were joined by the rest of the 42-seat council in putting communities before party politics. It shows we can work together to make people's lives better."
Read more in today's Grimsby Telegraph.
23 Comments
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by Pensioner, Immingham
Tuesday, February 23 2010, 11:49AM
“An error has occured.......try again:
Jo, I was "moderated" last week and protested, Michelle e-mailed me explaining the abuse in train. I regret my protest wasn't as nice as Michelle's reply.
Ref rates: we can't look into the future with certainty.......but history is exact. It has taken the council nearly 13 years to double the rates from as they were before Labour took over the government.
History again clearly shows the performance of De-Freitas and Khan. If you were interviewing them for responsible jobs involving large amounts of other peoples money they would be declined. How many millions have they lost..........it beggars belief that they are still in jobs, let alone expecting to win votes at the coming elections.
History proves their pathetic performance, promises of the future should be given to people without a history of repeated failures.
Linc up is embarrassingly just a propaganda outlet paid for by us. It would be more use as an information service if it detailed all the financial failures of De-Freitas and Khan.......and advised us who to vote for to oppose them. Nobody but nobody believes the lies printed to justify the NELC. Give the NELC a decent council leadership devoid of the two failures, Khan and De-Freitas, and we might get somewhere.
Zero this year co-incident to elections.........next year (or even an earlier interim emergency increase) as government austerity bites the rates will surely climb exponentially.
People who fail in business and councils should not be allowed to continue controlling other peoples money.......It is just absurd!
It took years to expose our MP's expenses abuse.....and if they didn't have their nose in the trough, they certainly knew the trough existed!
At least with De-Freitas he is a well documented leader of failure and accountancy blunders.....if you vote for him, you at least go into the future smelling failure!”
by Bernard, Sth Killingholme.
Sunday, February 21 2010, 5:56PM
“Jo. Grimsby.
I think that due to a vile remark posted Wed 7th Feb by a disgusting individual called Jim the GT are quite rightly sending all comments to the moderator.
I hope he's proud of himself for ruining it for others.”
by grouchocat, Grimsby
Sunday, February 21 2010, 4:21PM
“If council tax is raised by 3% or less next year (as reported) I'll bare my back side in Burton's window”
by Bernard, Sth Killingholme.
Sunday, February 21 2010, 3:47PM
“Harry. Cleethorpes.
Are you gormless or what?
If you take the time to look at the comment i was replying to , which was submitted by someone called r.a Fourth Reich you will notice i was commenting on that person's criticism of the local press also their beleif that the election of two labour MP's was something to be proud of,
In my opinion it's something to be ashamed of when you look back over the past 13 years, in Grimsby's case the last 33 years.
Please Harry in future don't attack the person because of their name and address,get your facts straight.”
by Jo, Grimsby
Sunday, February 21 2010, 2:04PM
“Sorry .. Please ignore this message. I'm just testing .. to see if i'm under moderation for all threads, or just specific ones.”