Labour's budget plans: waste, housing and families

A wasted opportunity to reset the Council's finances: nothing for hard-working families in Northampton: broken promises on Council tax.

This was the verdict of Labour group leader Cllr Sally Keeble on Reform's West Northant's Council budget.

"This was an opportunity for a reset for this council," she said. "To set aside the legacy of 20 Tory years in which local government here was  driven to bankruptcy, had services literally taken away because of scandals, and presided over a housing service that failed.

"Labour put forward in our budget amendment some measures that would start to turn things around,  fix the foundations – the building blocks that will protect everything that is good in our environment, that will enable the private sector to thrive, and that will ensure people here can build good lives for themselves and their families" she said at the Council's budget setting meeting.

Key measures in Labour's budget measures were:

• Restoration of free weekend parking in Northampton.

  
  

• Proposals for a new family hub in central Northampton – over and above the one planned in the library – and also one in the eastern district to provide early intervention.

  
  

• A youth service

• Subsidising school bus transport: £120 off the price of getting your kids to school by bus, for two-children families, and £200 for rural families.

  
  

• More for regeneration, with a Northampton Gateways project. So when the big development sites happen, the Gateways follow suit.

  
  

• A review of voluntary sector funding, and £50,000 for services for the deaf community.

  
  

• A £400,000 waste collection levy on houses in multiple occupation and four new neighbourhood wardens in HMO areas.

  
  

• A social housing unit, and development of the Nene Valley Corridor with a new park, leisure and housing facilities.

"For those who say, the Labour amendment is all about Northampton, I say, not so. There’s plenty of measures in here to benefit the countryside. Free parking concessions for Daventry and Towcester, a total of £192,000 for families using rural buses to get their children to school – because those termly tickets are very expensive. And we have also built in support for urban and country parks to encourage enjoyment of these green spaces," Cllr Keeble said.

"But there’s a bigger point too. We succeed or fail as  West Northants. If one area runs into difficulties, if people are homeless, if kids drop out of school,  all of us end up paying the bill.  We in my group believe that – especially in local government where we deal with the practicalities of people’s lives -  by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone. And that is what underpins this Labour budget."