Lib Dem Shock at Scale of Proposed Cuts
Liberal Democrats at County Hall have reacted with shock at the extent of the cuts being planned by the ruling Conservative administration. The council have announced spending cuts of £122m as a result of central government funding cuts and other "cost pressures" of £100m.
Liberal Democrat Group Leader Jon Hubbard commented, "I'm amazed that Jane Scott and the Conservative administration have announced these cuts now. The rest of the country is waiting until 20thOctober to find out what is actually happening, when the government actually announces what the cuts will be. It is also likely that we will learn more about how the government see councils working after this announcement, until then we will not really know what our spending priorities will be.
"This is a callous act by an uncaring council which is creating a climate of fear and intimidation in the workplace as people face an undefined period of uncertainty. To top it all off, the council is currently renegotiating its redundancy package so not only do people not know if they face job cuts, but they don't know what the redundancy package would be if they get the chop.
"Yet again we are being told that these cuts will not affect front line services and can be found with efficiency savings and consolidation. My question is, if there is all that slack in the system why were those jobs ever created when we went to one council?
"As for the £100m of pressures resulting from people growing old, well how inconsiderate of the people of Wiltshire to age! Personally, I would have thought even the Conservative party could have seen that coming.
"Clearly there will be cuts in services, there will be cuts in standards and there will be cuts in customer care. That's what happens when your default response to everything is to cut.
"We should wait to see what the actual changes from central government will be in October and then respond in a measured and properly planned way. Knee jerk reactions, premature to the event, simply lead to bad decisions being made, and that will cost the people of Wiltshire far more than any cuts from central government.