Sunday, March 08, 2009

Throwing our money at the lawyers...

My attack on the decision by the Conservative Leader of Lincolnshire County Council to spend thousands of pounds of public money in legal fees was picked up in this week's Lincs Free Press.

It really is total madness for Martin Hill to be throwing taxpayers cash at lawyers to chase another star...Lincolnshire County Council have been awarded just one-star for adult social care in each of the past six years despite year on year promises for two-stars. Now the county council is preparing to go to the High Court in London to challenge the one-star assessment by the independent inspectors.

No-one knows how much the planned Judicial Review in the High Court action may end up costing council taxpayers of Lincolnshire. Similar actions in the past are said to have cost up to £150,000.

Given the current economic downturn, I voted for a council tax freeze last month, but the ruling Conservatives forced through another increase - despite a generous increase in Government grants of more than six per cent - on top of last year's increase of over nine per cent.

As I said at the meeting, the last thing the people of Lincolnshire need as they struggle to survive the recession is a bigger council tax bill - specially when some of the extra raised will be spent chasing another star.

Rather than diverting our cash from vital services and giving it to expensive lawyers, Councillor Hill and the Tories would surely be wiser focusing on why they have been rated as one of the worst performing councils in the country when it comes to adult social care...

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