Lincs Tories force through cuts to home-school transport...

First meeting back from holidays this morning was a bad-tempered affair as I led a hopeless attempt at preventing the Tories who control Lincolnshire County Council from cutting entitlement of home-to-school transport for hundreds of our young people.

Despite widespread opposition, the Tories stuck their heads in the sand and pressed ahead with their cuts which frankly, are just plain daft.

As posted HERE, in February, they have decided to

* Scrap entitlement to help with travel costs when a child moves home in an exam year but wants to finish a course of education at their current school.

* Raise cash from children who live within two or three miles of their school and don't legally qualify for free transport. They will be charged £190 a year to use 'spare seats' on school buses which more than 500 children currently get for free.

* end entitlement to subsidised travel where parents exercise their right to send their children to a faith school. (The County Council will continue to pay the full costs of transport for those who similarly exercise their right to attend a Grammar School which appears to be discriminatory to me).

* Raise more cash by increasing travel charges to students who stay on at school or college after the age of 16 to £190 a year. (Despite Lincolnshire having the lowest staying-on rate in the country).

Three hours bashing our collective heads against the wall doing the impossible: trying to make Tories see sense.

Most refused even to attempt to justify or defend their cuts or engage in debate.
The only contribution in three hours for example from the Tory Chief Whip Martin Trollope-Bellew (Tallington) and former Council Chairman Colin Helstrip (Stamford) was a lengthy point of order to try to stop me asking questions about their daft plan.

Asking questions and holding them to account was of course, the whole point of the call-in.

Not one member of the so-called Scrutiny Committee spoke in favour of the cuts.

Rather than listen to reasoned argument and attempt to justify their actions, many Tories seemed to be there simply to steam-roller opposition and vote through the Executive's plan.

Which they did en-bloc.

Same old Tories.

(more later maybe...)

Lincs Tories get their priorities wrong - despite windfall from Labour Government...

With a whopping increase in Government grant of more than NINE per cent, the Tories on Lincolnshire County Council had no excuses when setting their priorities for the coming year.

But sadly, they have rejected a sensible, value-for-money plan to increase budgets to benefit vulnerable elderly people, children with special needs, youth services and the environment.

Remember, last year the Tories who run Lincolnshire County Council TREBLED home care charges for some of our most frail elderly and disabled people from £40 to an eye-watering £120 a week - provoking a 24-hour protest outside County Offices.

But despite the Labour Government handing over one of the most generous settlements ever, Lincolnshire Tories have stubbornly refused to reduce their crippling charges by a penny-piece.

At the budget-setting meeting on Friday, I supported the fully-costed alternative budget tabled by Labour Group Leader Rob Parker.

It would have made an extra £5 million available to spend on vital 'people' services in the coming financial year by:

* stepping up efficiency savings,
* trimming finance charges, and
* not increasing ‘balances’ as planned by the Conservatives.

The cash injection of millions of pounds in extra funding by our Labour Government would also have allowed the Tories to scrap planned new charges to make hundreds of young people pay to get to school.

Lincolnshire has one of the lowest staying-on-at-school rates in the country, yet two years ago, the Tories imposed a £180 charge for over-16s just to get to school.

Now they are consulting on a plan to:

* INCREASE charges for over-16s,
* CUT all free travel for children in faith schools,
* CUT assistance for children who move home during their exam year but want to finish their education without moving school,
* CUT all free travel for children who live within three miles of their school who now benefit from using empty seats on school buses.

These daft draconian cuts don’t address the real problems. Instead they penalise parents and children unfairly and in my view they risk adding to serious road safety and environment concerns.

The Director of Resources, Pete Moore, confirmed that Labour’s alternative budget is realistic.

Once again, we have shown Lincolnshire Tories how to put people first and get some joined-up thinking and real value for money. But sadly, as usual, they have refused to listen.

I hope the people of Lincolnshire will let the Council know what they think of Tory cuts - despite the windfall of millions from the Labour Government.