“In public, local Tories led by their PPC say they’re in favour of policies like the Living Wage and the capital investments across North Northumberland such as broadband roll out yet they vote against them in the council chamber

CONSERVATIVES SLAMMED FOR ‘HYPOCRISY’ OVER BUDGET SNUB

“They say they support policies like the Living Wage yet vote against them in the budget” – Grant Davey, Leader of Council and Labour group

Northumberland’s Conservatives have come under fire after their decision to vote against last week’s Budget at Northumberland County Council (25 Feb 2015) which would have seen £350m of capital schemes such as the Duchess of Alnwick High School refurbishment and the Crag End landslip works scrapped if the local Conservatives had been successful in their attempt to derail the 2 year budget.

Now Labour’s PPC for North Northumberland Scott Dickinson has aimed a salvo at his Conservative counterpart and accused her of ‘breath taking hypocrisy’ as it emerged that Conservative attempts to wreck Labour’s budget would have meant that plans to implement the so called ‘Living Wage’ in October would have been scuppered. He also accused the Tories of ‘putting politics before people’, pointing to the recent independent Peer Review findings which said opposition councillors were deliberately damaging the reputation of the council.

Seventeen Conservative Councillors voted against the budget and had their attempt to sabotage the budget been successful, North Northumberland lose out on dozens of building projects such as Crag End Landslip investment program, schools capital investment programme for Alnwick partnership, Hadston/Druridge Bay leisure facility, Alnwick Lionheart fire station and depot renewal programme, Housing Investment Programme (HfN), Rural Broadband further rollout, new street lighting program, Affordable Homes Programme, retention of libraries service programme, repair of leisure facilities, solar PV for schools, biomass for schools programme and major parks enhancement programme for Alnwick and Berwick.

Scott Dickinson Labour’s PPC for North Northumberland said

“In public, local Tories led by their PPC say they’re in favour of policies like the Living Wage and the capital investments across North Northumberland such as broadband roll out yet they vote against them in the council chamber. Seventeen Tories tried to derail investment in schemes like the Crag End landslip yet their PPC tried to take credit for the Labour decision to commit extra funds. That’s called rank hypocrisy and residents won’t forget local Tories putting ‘politics before people’ come May”.

End

Notes for Editors – schemes that would have been scrapped if Tory budget opposition had succeeded

1.     Free Car parking in Country Parks.

2.     Crag End Landslip investment program.

3.     Schools capital Investment program for Alnwick partnership.

4.     Hadston/Druridge Bay Leisure Facility.

5.     Alnwick Lionheart fire station and depot renewal program.

6.     Housing Investment Program (HfN).

7.     Rural Broadband further rollout.

8.     New street lighting program.

9.     Affordable Homes Program.

10.                        Early Years Investment Program.

11.                        Care for the elderly.

12.                        Retention of Libraries Service Program.

13.                        Repair of Leisure Facilities.

14.                        Solar PV for schools.

15.                        Biomass for schools program.

16.                        Major parks enhancement program, Alnwick and Berwick.

17.                        Living Wage from Oct 2015