SQUIRRELS IN CONTROL AT COUNTY COUNCIL

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 24th Jul 2008

Cllr David Jenkins

David Jenkins, leader of the County Council's Liberal Democrats, has rounded on the Council's ruling Conservatives for rejecting plans to spend an extra £1.8 million on front-line public services.

"With the Conservatives hoarding ever larger sums in 'reserves', the public might as well have voted for a family of squirrels to run the County Council", he says. "If taxpayers wanted their money stashed away in the bank, I doubt they would put a bunch of local councillors in charge of the job".

"The Council has at least £1.8 million of extra money at its disposal this year and quite obviously it should be spent on public services. Every person in Cambridgeshire knows a hundred ways in which this money could be well spent. The Conservatives are always banging on about how the Council can't afford to provide better services, but when extra money does become available they squirrel it away for a 'rainy day'."

The Lib Dems plan would have seen extra money for highway repair and traffic management, youth services and helping schools to save money on energy consumption. In addition a quarter million pound fund would have helped preserve the county's Post Office network.

The plan was put to a meeting of the Council on Tuesday after the Lib Dems discovered that millions of pounds had been added to the Council's reserves since the Council set its budget in February. The motion was voted down by the Conservative majority.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

The Lib Dem group asked for £1.8 million of newly available funds to be allocated as follows:

• £1,000,000 for highway maintenance and traffic management

• £250,000 to help save Cambridgeshire's Post Office network

• £250,000 for young people's services

• £300,000 for climate change projects in schools.