The CYC Conservative Group, leaders of York’s coalition administration, have criticised opposition groups for their budget amendments prior to Thursday’s budget council meeting, saying that both the Labour and Green groups have taken time-wasting political posturing to new lows.
Cllr. Stuart Rawlings, Deputy Leader of the group said “With no election in sight the opposition have decided to concentrate on creating press releases for their respective political leaflets rather than putting forward any amendments of real merit to our proposed budget.
“Labour have cynically called for council tax increases falling just short of the cut-off which requires a referendum, ensuring that residents would endure a maximum increase without having any chance to have their say. They have also suddenly embraced ‘frontline services’ after their collapse at the polls last May, belatedly realising that these are the services residents actually care about, but their call for increased spending on programmes such as gully-cleaning is farcical after their record in power.
“The Greens meanwhile pretend to be bold in proposing a whopping 6% council tax increase when they know that such a referendum has virtually no chance of passing. Perhaps for honesty’s sake they should be required to tell us what their proposal for a more realistic budget would be after their referendum failed and the city was £155k poorer from wasted election costs.
“The Conservative-Liberal Democrat administration has set a realistic budget respectful of the needs of residents and grateful for the extra money from the Government, which we are using to strengthen at-risk services for the future, and we fully commend our budget as it stands to the people of York.”