"Labour Wasting Taxpayers' Money" say Lib Dems

12.00.00am GMT Sun 20th Feb 2005

Liberal Democrats are angry at Labour's blatant political point-scoring over the Council's proposed 2005/06 Budget. They are the official opposition but, instead of using the many opportunities they have already had to propose amendments to the budget, they have chosen to "call it in". This means that a special meeting of a council committee has to be arranged, and will result in taxpayers' money being wasted.

When could Labour have proposed amendments to the 2005/06 Budget or called it in for further scrutiny?

• Their first chance was at the Cabinet meeting on 21 December - they proposed no amendments and they did not "call in" the draft budget.

• Their second chance was when the draft budget was discussed at the various cross-party Scrutiny Committees - they failed to put forward any proposals to amend any part of the draft budget.

• Their third chance was at the Cabinet meeting on 15 February - not a single Labour Councillor bothered to turn up to put forward any amendments.

In addition, every Councillor will have the chance to propose amendments when the 2005/06 Budget proposals come to full Council on 28 February when the Council Tax is set.

The irony is that members of the public, and many local organisations, did attend these earlier meetings to make suggestions, and also proposed changes during the period of consultation on the draft budget. The Council's Liberal Democrat administration have listened to these suggestions and, indeed, made changes to take account of the concerns raised. Where were the Labour Party's proposals? Why did they ignore these opportunities?

Council Leader, Isobel Wilson said: "This is a desperate last ditch stand by Labour. Calling in the proposed budget at this late stage will waste staff time in arranging an extra meeting, preparing and circulating the papers for this extra meeting, and attending the meeting. Councillors' time will also be wasted, as they will all be discussing the budget at a full meeting of the Council the following week.

"Time means money - this is taxpayers' money! Labour are demanding that the Council's top staff attend this extra meeting, at only two days notice - this will amount to £1,000's of staff time. This is not the way for a responsible political party to act. It is pure political mischief-making in the run up to a General Election."