Bradford & District | Archive | 1998 | March | 3
From the Telegraph & Argus, first published Tuesday 3rd Mar 1998.
Tory leader William Hague has attacked Bradford Council for "arrogance" and says power has gone to the head of the Labour group because of its huge majority.
Speaking on his first visit to Bradford, Mr Hague said: "People have been taken for granted here by Labour. They are getting higher Council Tax, worse services and less information than they deserve."
And as Bradford Council prepared to operate its national pilot scheme under the Government's Best Value initiative, which will replace competitive tendering, Mr Hague predicted the Labour group would push private businesses out and keep contracts for Council services in-house.
Asked about the Council's bid to be a flagship authority as a Better Value national pilot, Mr Hague said: "We all want to see it as a flagship, but it needn't do Better Value to do that. More money for local schools and lower Council Tax would help."
He criticised the Council for keeping a third of the education budget for central services and said more should go to schools.
Education committee chairman Councillor Jim Flood has defended the percentage, and says Bradford's large Section 11 budget for ethnic minorities is included in central services, inflating it artificially.
He has also said the biggest part of central services expense is in debt charges for schools built in the past.
Council leader Councillor John Ryan said Bradford had suffered 18 years of cuts under Tory government.
He said if Mr Hague's party had still been in government Bradford would have been forced to increase the Council Tax by more than ten per cent and at the same time slash £10 million from the budget.
Coun Ryan said the Council listened to people through the community plan, Speak Out and neighbourhood panels, and had a "listening culture".
Mr Hague today joined Bradford Council's Tory group to launch their budget document - Resources and Results, not Reviews - at City Hall.
Their alternative plan to be put forward at today's Council budget meeting proposes:
A £17 million cash injection into local schools;
Restoration of Labour's £500,000 cut in social services;
An increase in Council Tax bills of 2.5 per cent instead of Labour's proposed 6.6 per cent.
They will also call for Labour's controversial review of the district's schools to be scrapped. Mr Hague feared the Council may not listen to the public over the schools review.
Council Tory group leader Councillor Margaret Eaton, claimed if the Education Authority reduced the cash it withheld for education central services, a further £20 million could be redirected.
Coun Ryan said an extra £1.1 million had been directed into education and Coun Eaton's figure of £20 million was "plucked out of the air".
Coun Ryan said hundreds of jobs, most of them from schools, would have been axed if £20 million had been cut from central services.
Mr Hague was in Bradford for a dinner given by Bradford Constituency Conservative party. He met members of the Asian community and praised Bradford West members for their work last year when there was a swing to the Tories in the General Election.
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
© Newsquest Media Group 2008