Local councillor Sam Hearn writes a blog about his week
Saturday 18 th February: My turn to run the Councillors Surgery at Chiswick Library. No residents turned up so I had a chance to catch up with our GLA Member Tony Arbour. Tony attends our surgeries once a month to pick up on any London Assembly or Mayoral issues.
Sunday 19 th February: Sorting out my papers for the Budget Setting meeting and trying to see what if any important issues are buried in the papers for the Audit Committee.
Monday 20 th February: At the Group Meeting to finalise our approach to the 2017 Budget Setting at tomorrow's Borough council meeting. For some of us the Budget Debate is the culmination of many months of meetings, questioning of Officers and Lead Members and soul searching. Conventionally we could present an alternative Budget that expresses our ideas and beliefs in numbers. In our heart of hearts we know that any such amendment will be simply be ignored.
Tuesday 21 st February : Our Group Leader Councillor Thompson presents our case in measured tones and is listened to without interruption. There is much common ground e.g. protection of adult social care services. It would be hard to argue against the 2% rise in Council Tax to fund the so called Social Care precept. The further increase of 1.99% is more problematic.
We have our doubts about many detailed areas of the Budget. So many savings that have not previously been presented for scrutiny in any detail and with so many operational over-spends in the current year it is hard to believe that what we have before us is a balanced budget. Then there are the capital budgets where cost and delivery dates are never quite what they seem e.g. the “bringing in house” of waste collection.
Cllrs Todd, McGregor, Lynch and I put flesh on the bones of these doubts. Where will the £1.5m of savings in the Library Service come from? Is the £2m reduction in the inflation provision a wise move? What will a £900k saving in Regeneration, Economic Development and Environment look like in practice? What are the “overdue reforms” in Enforcement that will produce £585k. The speakers from the Labour Group address few of these issues directly. We are told by a back-bencher that none of the existing Libraries will close but that the service will be “brought in house”.
Wednesday 22 nd February: Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary comes to Chiswick Riverside to talk to the local Conservative Association's Patrons Group. Amber has a human and very direct personality. Refreshingly she speaks in plain English without resorting to ‘politician-speak'. A few minutes in her company and you quickly understand why Teresa May chose no-nonsense Amber to follow her into the Home Office. It was good to see the Patron's Group grinding into action again. We need all the funds we that can get to fight the local elections in 2018 and the General Election in 2020.
Thursday 23 rd February : I was a bit a baffled by all the messages this week asking me to confirm that I would be at the Audit Committee meeting. The penny finally dropped – not everyone could make the meeting and without me the meeting would not have been quorate. I was pleased to hear that a new head of internal audit had been appointed to run our shared service. The 2017/18 internal audit plan includes two assignments on different aspects of the now notorious Lampton 360. Rather ominously the scope of these assignments is still to be determined. Linking back to the Budget meeting another assignment will review the commissioning arrangements for adult services.
Friday 24 th February : At St Paul's Grove Park for the Church's annual Quiz Night fundraiser. Our team was doing really well until the so called table round! However we were not sorry to miss out on winning. The prize for winning is that you get to set the following year's quiz.
March 4, 2017
