Councillor Justin Tomlinson has responded to Labour's plans to 'spend, spend, spend' in Swindon Borough Council. Labour have made it clear that they do not believe the Council should look to balance the books.
Local residents have already suffered a 42% hike in Council Tax in just 3 years under the previous failed Labour Administration. Local residents decided they simply couldn't afford Labour's endless waste and mismanagement and in the June 04 elections, the Conservatives took overall control for the first time in 25 years.
Swindon Borough Council annual budget of £180 million will see some budgets overspend, some budgets underspend. Like all households the aim is to balance the books. Failure to do so leads to higher Council Tax bills.
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Abbey Meads Councillor Justin Tomlinson and lead member for Swindon Services, said maintaining the council's reserves was good housekeeping.
This year, the council faced debts of £1.9 million built up by social services.
"In any big organisation that spends £180 million there are going to be some areas where you overspend and underspend," he said.
"But everything has to balance out at the end of the year and we have to manage our books and aim to maintain £4 million in reserves."
Coun Tomlinson said the savings posted by Swindon Services had come from unexpected rebates rather than cuts to frontline services.
And he accused Labour of an irresponsible lack of budget control.
"Under Labour the reserves were well under recommended levels," he said.
He laughed off the idea there was a conspiracy to reduce spending.
"We were elected to deliver fair and affordable council tax it's all over our election leaflets," added the Abbey Meads councillor.