Liberal Democrat FOCUS editor, Simon James, said, "The Conservatives have been taking their wages as the Administration but refused to take the most important decision of the year seriously. For short term political advantage they were prepared to put vital services at risk. The Conservative Administration had to go. Interim arrangements have been made for all parties to participate in any urgent decisions between now and the election of a new council."

Read the speeches:

Liberal Democrat Councillor Roger Hayes:

"Deception - this Conservative administration has spent three months duping this council and the borough’s residents - three months wasting officers time - three months pretending to go through the budget setting process while secretly plotting a cheap election bribe"

Conservative Independent Councillor Dennis de Lord:

"The decision by the Conservative Group not to participate in the all-party budget negotiations, leaving the three remaining Groups on this Council to do so on their own, was nothing but disgraceful."

Conservative Independent Tim Brown:

"Speaking as an Accountant and Auditor by profession, in my view the "no-frills" Conservative Budget was a combination of asset-stripping and dubious creative accounting, not the prudent and common sense approach"

Editorial:  

The council spends around £131 million. Most of this is a Conservative budget - only one and a half million is being disputed at present. Opposition Councillors claim that there would not be sufficient time to look through all the figures since opposition Councillors would require far more freedom of access to information - a problem previously raised under the current Conservative administration.

Councils can raise money by selling property.  The Conservative budget assumed that they could sell a property  at £920,000 and gain all as income. However in law only half of this would come to the Council. The remainder has to be used to pay off debt (councils have loans in the same way as residents have mortgages). Further the Conservatives counted the rent from the property as still coming to the Council after they would have sold the property. The single windfall would of course not deal with issues for the coming years and so was judged to be unsustainable. Consequently many councillors could not accept it as a budget that would balance. 

This has not been the first time that the Conservatives have had such problems. The other three parties (Independent Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrat) asked the Conservatives to an all party discussion, however the Conservatives refused to attend. Eventually a consensus was met between the other three parties on the shortfall and so the budget was accepted, just before the legal deadline expired. The common view was that the remaining financial mess will have to be sorted out over the course of the year.

Concern then arose that with the Conservative past record of not inspiring confidence in handling money and many councillors voiced concern about  facing some irresponsible action that would put the council at risk. This followed previous concerns of the borough financial watchdog in the Conservative budget.

One back bench councillor said "at first when we saw the quick rewrite of the great Tory plan we believed that the errors were just down to lack of competence, but as the debate went on, we became convinced that this was an attempt to sabotage the council budget for the following year - especially with the Conservatives expected to lose control - no one dare trust them after that.  The other parties had to put aside their political differences for the sake of the boroughs future".

Speaches:

Councillor Roger Hayes - Leader of the Liberal Democrats

There are three reasons for us putting this motion and three reasons why all Groups should support it

1. Deception - this Conservative administration has spent three months duping this council and the borough’s residents - three months wasting officers time - three months pretending to go through the budget setting process while secretly plotting a cheap election bribe
   
   They can’t have it both ways - either this was a cynical deception all along, or they never had the wit and imagination to come up with anything different until they picked the brains of Marian, Dennis and myself at the so call Leaders’ Summit
   
2. Irresponsibility - the Tory budget proposal was not just irresponsible and unsustainable in its ill thought out fragility, this shabby eleventh hour trick attempted to bribe the residents with their own assets in a one off attempt to buy votes. It contained very nearly £1.5m worth off officer identified risk, almost equivalent to the level of Council reserves, that they sought to plunder still further, and which the District Auditor describes as already below the recommended minimum
   
   So craven are they in their attempts to hang on to power that are willing to risk the whole future of the Royal Borough’s finances – willing to sell off valuable assets in a one off vote grab, willing even to run the risk of an illegal deficit budget – anything but face up to their responsibility as the Administration and set a sustainable and deliverable budget
   
   Again Mr Mayor they can’t have it both ways – either this was a cheap trick attempting to save their political skins, or some reckless scorched earth policy – knowing they will crash and burn in May maybe their ploy was to leave an incoming Liberal Democrat Administration with an unworkable financial position
   
3. Abdication - having rightly lost the argument, they then petulantly take their bat home and refuse to help set a responsible budget and council tax, leaving it to the three opposition parties to pick up their pieces and do their job for them

So, there it is Mr Mayor, either they are a credible administration capable of responsible action – in which case why have they behaved so appallingly over the past few weeks, or they are, as I believe, an irresponsible, incompetent and dishonest rabble whom, although likely to be rejected by the people of Kingston in a few weeks time, we must demonstrate our complete lack of trust in them now and throw them out tonight.

Leader of Independent Group of Councillors

It was not an easy decision to agree to Second this motion. This council is fully aware of the split between ourselves and our former Group and the reasons behind it. We have paid the price for not being willing to compromise our values nor to sell our souls. However, what's right is right and what's wrong is no man's right.

The decision by the Conservative Group not to participate in the all-party budget negotiations, leaving the three remaining Groups on this Council to do so on their own, was nothing but disgraceful. As Councillor. Bowen-Hitchings (Consrervative)' husband was keen to remind me and I quote, "we do not need people who, because they can't have their own way, sulk and take their ball home." If you remember, he was also keen to confirm that he writes his own letters without his wife's knowledge.

This though only serves to further highlight the hypocrisy and double standards that has increasingly infected the Conservative Group on this Council. A Group that has always been quick to point out the irresponsible behaviour of others, whilst conveniently ignoring that of its own. A Group whom we witnessed only a couple of weeks ago, willing to resort to financial recklessness and abandonment in pursuit of one goal - their own survival. A Group that can no longer depend on the strength of its argument but relies on bully boy tactics, coercion and good old fashioned deceitfulness.

Councillor Davis (Leader of the Consrervatives) had called this motion farcical. How farcical is it I ask, that his own colleagues needed to be subjected to a three line whip to vote that this motion be debated tonight, so as to appear they had nothing to run from? But of course, that's precisely what the Conservative Group had already done by abdicating their responsibility when the truth about their budget was exposed.

Their proposals were a cynical and distasteful manipulation of the people of this Borough. Engineered to do one thing and one thing only, to bribe residents this year and make them pay for it next - after the elections. So much for Councillor Davis' apparent concerns about the impact on our senior citizens. Has he forgotten that old people get older, frailer and poorer with each passing day or was he hoping that by next year, his colleagues would succeed in getting their hands on another piece of the family silver to pay for their bribe?

It is no wonder, that we Councillors are held in such poor standing with the public. It would be nice to think that the Conservatives would, even now, have an ounce of honour left between them and freely walk out of this chamber with some dignity intact - but I think we would all be disappointed. The rest of us must accept though, that this Administration's behaviour cannot be tolerated for even one more day

And have the courage to take the necessary steps to replace it.

Finally, I know there are some concerns about leaving this Administration rudderless for the next few weeks. Nothing new, I'd say, given recent events but surely when the ship is sinking, who is actually steering it should be the least of our worries. More importantly, what will it say of this Council and the values it respects, if we do

nothing?

Dennis de Lord

.

Speech Transcript from Councillor Tim Brown, Deputy Leader of Independent Group of Councillors on Motion at Council Meeting to Remove Conservative Administration...

I was a member of the Conservative Party for years - a party I always believed stood for Financial Prudence and Probity. Frankly, the last-minute Budget proposals made by Councillor Davis shattered any remaining illusions I had that the local Conservatives live up to these ideals.

Speaking as an Accountant and Auditor by profession, in my view the "no-frills" Conservative Budget was a combination of asset-stripping and dubious creative accounting, not the prudent and common sense approach I would expect from Conservative Councillors.

As you know, I had already put down a Council Question to the Leader of the Administration asking him whether "given their combined council salaries of £340,000, he agreed that the failure of the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and himself to attend the all-party negotiations to set the Council Tax was a dereliction of duty and a betrayal of the responsibility bestowed upon them by the people of this borough?"

I think Councillor. Davis (Conservative councillor and leader of the Council administration) knows that the only honourable answer can be Yes.

Sadly, this Administration finds itself in a complete mess of its own making. It is one thing for them to asset-strip their own local association, as they have done, to the tune of £3140,000 during the last two years - something Cllrs Johnston (Conservative) and Witham (Conservative) may not be so willing to accept credit for (indeed Councillor. Johnston seems to have deserted just in time) - but it is quite another thing for their Group to attempt to asset-strip this Council in order to promote their re-election. In both cases the similarities could not be any clearer - it's not THEIR money.

Had I still been a Member of the Conservative Group I hope that I would have had the courage, once again, to take an ethical stance and stand up against such actions. But as the last four years have shown, those who have also taken this stance like Cllrs. Jenner, Matthews and De Lord have been ostracised and vilified, whilst others that have remained within the Conservative Group have been muted in one way or another.

Having heard from other Members this evening, I can fully understand the reasons why this motion wishes to express this Council's utter contempt for the irresponsible behaviour of this Administration at Budget Council.

Of course, the real test will be at the ballot box on May 2nd when the Conservative leadership will have to answer for failing the people of this Borough AND for failing the Conservative Party. I deeply regret both.

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