At the 2025 Budget meeting, Councillors agreed on some of our budget amendments;
- £230,000 for a ‘Kirklees Clean up’
- £149,000 for Christmas bin collections
- £7,500,000 in Cleckheaton Town Hall
- £9,000,000 of additional funding to fix our roads
- £250,000 in a new playground at Cliffe House
This is on top of funding for investigating innovative solutions to long term problems around council housing provision (£20,000), littering and fly tipping (£10,000) and £30,000 to support voluntary groups, reducing red tape that makes life difficult for them.
To be clear, the main budget is a Labour one and our successful amendments are to be delivered by the Labour cabinet.
We will be watching closely how they are delivered.
We have also secured a commitment to bring forward proposals to address the need for sports provision in Dewsbury and have also forced the Labour administration to reduce the amount they planned to borrow over the next few years by over £20,000,000, by reshaping the Huddersfield blueprint.
Unfortunately, we were unable to get agreement to ask Unions to shoulder some of the burden. While Councillors were asked to take a cut in their allowances and taxpayers asked to contribute more, we were calling on the Unions to do so as well.
While there are many things we would want to change about the Labour budget, we have to be pragmatic and recognise the difficult financial pressures faced by the council caused by years of historical mismanagement.
We also have to recognise that no group in the council have a majority and there is a legal requirement to agree a budget.
It’s easy to argue for the sake of arguing but we feel we’ve done the right and responsible thing for residents of the whole of Kirklees.
What do you think? Do you feel we've secured a good deal for you?