At the recent budget meeting, Cllr Smith shared his reaction to the Green Party amendment.
The Green Party budget proposal is not a serious amendment. It does not address the concerns of residents. It carries on the Labour tradition of continuing to raise council tax whilst not addressing any of the failings in the services the Council should be delivering for residents.
The failing bin service, the awful state of our roads, the poorly maintained street furniture and town and village centres. The Green amendment addresses none of these issues, which I find are important to the people I represent in Kirkburton ward. It obsesses about retrofitting a small number of council houses at our expense, Passivhaus and net-zero. What I think this Council should be doing is focussing on the basic services that it continually fails to deliver satisfactorily.
Transcript below
Thank you, Mr Mayor.
I rise to speak on this Green Amendment.
In some respects I envy the Green Party because they know that in both national and local politics they can say things, promise things, that they know they will never have to deliver, because they will never be able to get anywhere near taking control of anything.
And this amendment is clearly written with that poetic license as its core principle.
This is not a serious budget amendment for how this council is going to provide services to the people of Kirklees. It is a political statement made by someone to his core supporters, in the full knowledge that none of it will ever happen.
There is no vision in this amendment to address the concerns of residents regarding the soaring cost of council tax, nor is there any consideration given to residents concerns with the poor level of service they are currently enduring under this Labour administration.
I speak to people in my ward and they tell me they are concerned about the state of our roads, about the poor standard of their bin service, about the fact that their children have missed lots of school time with Covid, they are concerned about the financial burden being placed on them and are worried that the administration is going to increase their council tax yet again and not only increase it but also fail to address any of the issues to boot.
Budget Council is an opportunity for political groups to make their offer to the residents of Kirklees. “This is what we can do to improve your lives, if we are in a position to control this Authority” People can listen to this meeting and decide for themselves whether this political group are offering something to them, their families, their areas which will improve their lot.
So should a resident so wish, they can attend or watch this meeting online and see for themselves who has their priorities at heart.
Does it sort the roads, the bins, the gritting in winter, does it take account of how much I have to pay each month? Does it concentrate on what a Council is here to deliver?
All of these are legitimate and relevant questions for a resident to look for in a budget amendment.
This amendment doesn’t address any of these concerns. Instead it is an extremely political budget, which will not address the concerns of the residents we represent, the ones who pay the council tax and expect a service in return.
Does the Green Party believe that the residents in this borough would like the council to spend almost £6M of their money, taxpayers money on retrofitting houses to achieve net zero? Even those who may believe they would benefit from such a scheme will be asked to pay an extra “Comfort Charge” for the privilege. It doesn’t detail the exact cost per tenant of this comfort charge, but it does mention the £85,000 per property it would cost the taxpayer to retrofit these houses.
The Passivhaus standard makes its annual trip to the Kirklees Budget meeting. This year, it is seeking £795,000 from our already hard up council tax payers. I have neighbours who are interested in building a Passivhaus, so it may be in the fullness of time I could be convinced that they deliver all they promise, but at the moment I have to say my scepticism remains. I also note that my neighbour will be funding this on their own, so if it becomes an expensive mistake, it will be them that shoulders this financial burden instead of kirklees residents who had no say in how their money was spent.
There may be some politically motivated students in the Newsome Ward who think they can vote green and make the world a better place, but the vast majority of our residents want the council to provide the basic services for which they are charged handsomely. This budget amendment does not help our residents with that. I will not support it and I very much doubt anyone else will either.
Thank you.
