"Does council need its own Chief Exec?" ask LibDems (Islington Liberal Democrats)

Islington Liberal Democrats <Islington_ld@cix.co.uk>

"Does council need its own Chief Exec?" ask LibDems

July 27, 2010 9:25 AM

Cllr John Gilbert

Following the announcement that Labour councillors plan £7million cuts to services in Islington, Liberal Democrats have asked whether Labour is getting its priorities right.

Labour pledged in the election campaign to cut waste and spending on communcations and councillor allowances. But Labour's budget for the remainder of the current financial year has no reduction in allowances or communications and Labour is increasing the staff and salary bill in its own political office while other staff across the council face redundancy.

Liberal Democrats will be proposing more imaginative savings to cut costs rather than frontline services, such as sharing the council Chief Executive with another borough and other shared services.

Liberal Democrat Finance Spokesperson, councillor John Gilbert, said:

"If we are to make the kind of savings we need to reduce Gordon Brown's debt nationally, Labour councillors need to be much bolder in rooting out waste and inefficiency locally. This must happen before any other cuts are even considered.

"Sharing a Chief Executive and pooling services with other councils could bring big savings. But Labour is silent on these big issues and is already cutting services and slashing spending by £7miilion until April 2011 alone. And there's worse to come.

"To add insult to injury they refused to accept the Liberal Democrat idea of a 5% cut to all councillor salaries and instead created new paid positions for their own councillors. Now they want to increase the number of Labour spin doctors while setting aside council cash to lay off other staff! Labour's priorities are all wrong."