With councillors planning to slash services as well as increase council tax, residents across the borough have been reacting angrily. ADRIAN KWINTNER and SARAH WARDEN report ...

BROMLEY Council is planning a steep council tax hike coupled with savage cuts to services despite holding £50m of reserve funds in the bank.

Councillors are currently deciding how much cash will be spent on services, next year, and have planned a raft of cuts to social services, education and leisure facilities in the borough.

The controversial decisions were taken at three heated council meetings, and are likely to go ahead even though Bromley is debt free with £50m in reserve.

Reserve funds can be used to make up any shortfall between service provision and council tax income £4m was used by the Liberal Democrat administration to prevent a higher tax hike, last year.

Councillors are cutting services to keep any increase in council tax in single figures but council leader Councillor Michael Tickner has admitted the rise is likely to be above inflation.

Council tax has risen by 35 per cent in the last three years. Cllr Tickner pledged, when he took over the council last May, to keep this year's increase to single figures.

Major funding cuts so far include:

Primary school funding £259,000 cut

Library services £215,000 cut

Grounds maintenance £121,000 cut

Sports development £36,000

Bromley Association for Disabled People (BATH) £20,000 cut

l Bromley Citizens' Advice Bureaux £20,000 cut

l Norman Park athletics track £7,000 cut

Leisure services alone will face a £1.2 million cutback and in other areas such as homecare for the elderly and cemeteries, charges will increase by more than the rate of inflation.

Job cuts estimated to be around 68 will be made across the board, and ballots for strike action by council workers' union Unison are in progress. Campaigners plan to demonstrate outside the policy and resources committee meeting on February 13, where the cuts are expected to be rubber-stamped.

Alison Stammers, chairman of the governors at Mead Road Infant School, in Chislehurst, said: "I would urge everyone to resist these cuts before they go through the policy and resources committee.

"This is a knee-jerk reaction by the council, it is targeting easy options. Education is an invaluable asset, which needs more funding, not less."

Members of the public wishing to have a say about the council tax issue can attend open public meetings to express their views.

Meetings will be held at 7.30pm, at Oak Lodge Primary School, Chamberlain Crescent, West Wickham, on February 5, and at Charles Darwin Secondary School, Jail Lane, Biggin Hill on February 6.

'WE WILL HAVE TO STRIKE'

COUNCIL workers are balloting for strike action over Bromley Council's plan to axe 68 jobs and slash services across the borough.

Council workers union, Unison said it had "no alternative" but to strike and that service cuts are a "cynical manoeuvre," by the council to stop a substantial rise in council tax.

Unison members protested against the cuts and heckled councillors as they entered the civic centre for the leisure and community services committee, last Thursday.

The decision to axe 68 jobs is expected to be finalised at next month's meeting of the policy and resources committee.

Threatened posts include 41 administration and support staff, 14 grounds maintenance and parks staff, 12 staff in reference and bibliographical library services, and one mobile library driver.

Unison branch secretary Glenn Kelly said: "The meeting had more discussions on compost than staff cuts. Many members feel they'd be more valuable to this council as a pile of rubbish. We are left with no alternative but to strike."

"Sacrificing services is a cynical manoeuvre for them to get re-elected on the council tax issue.

"I believe it's a false argument that we either have a council tax hike or we have budget cuts. The council is sitting on £100m of reserves, money which belongs to the people of Bromley and should be spent on services," he added.

Bromley Council leader Michael

Tickner says

proposals for the cuts were made by council officers and calls on council

departments to "tighten their belts"

HE MAKES THIS POINT:"I hope we can still have a single figure percentage increase in council tax, though with the addition of the GLA precept, an increase may still be higher than the rate of inflation.

"Proposals for cuts have been made by council officers and we must make some difficult decisions. I want all council departments to tighten their belts. Frontline services will not be significantly cut, and I hope people will still see an acceptable level of service in all areas.

"We need to contain the large increases in council tax of the past few years 35 per cent since 1999. If people want more money for services, I would say they need to be patient. When we can afford things like the new swimming pool and more money for schools, that will come.

"We listened to what people wanted about Anerley Town Hall and the Bromley Youth Music Trust, and I would ask people to come to public meetings and tell us where they think money could be saved.

"We are not opposed to using money from the reserves, but I don't think it should all be used as it acts as a valuable cushion for the borough.

"I hope Ken Livingstone will be forced to drop his proposals for a 35 per cent increase in the GLA precept, which would automatically be a seven per cent rise in Bromley's council tax."

Councillor Chris Maines, leader of the Liberal Democrat councillors, responds by saying having outer London's

lowest council

tax is a "hollow

aspiration"

HE MAKES THIS POINT:"The goal to have outer London's lowest council tax is not worth having if the borough does not get the decent public services it needs.

"It's a hollow aspiration appealing to a minority of people who are only concerned with themselves. Everybody now accepts if you want decent public services you have to pay for them."

"People who use Norman Park athletics track are only a minority of residents, but the cost of any cuts to the rest of the community would be difficult to measure.

"If you make cuts to youth services, you will have to pick up the bill for more vandalism and graffiti in the community and those using the mobile libraries are largely elderly people who can't travel into town centres. It's the vulnerable who are most hit."

"The Citizens' Advice Bureau does the work the council should be doing itself and sorts out problems on behalf of the council. I don't understand why they are making cuts."

"Staff morale is low because Tickner criticises council staff publicly, undermines their confidence and does not consult them over redundancies being made to frontline services."

DON'T TAKE AWAY MY DIGNITY

Dear Cllr Tickner

I am paralysed from the waist down, have severe breathing problems and debilitating arthritis.

My husband died 11 years ago. Without night sitters, my body seizes up and I find it virtually impossible to sleep.

The night sitter boils water for my inhaler, exercises my hands, arms and legs and helps me use a bedpan.

I'm absolutely terrified when my sitter's not there at night. I hardly sleep a wink and I can't even move my fingers.

The council has asked me to consider going into a nursing home or even having a catheter but I want to retain my independence.

The night carers have helped me enormously to get a decent night's sleep, and I think it's disgusting the council is cutting the service to save money.

Christine Edwards, aged 53,

St Paul's Cray

MONEY FOR NOTHING

Simplistic, irresponsible,

reactionary that's what councillors called me when

I protested at the way

Bromley residents were being hit by council tax rises.

They said services will be cut so council tax can be kept down.

Now it seems services will be cut but council tax will ALSO go up.

I'm sorry, but to my simplistic mind it doesn't add up.

So I'm going to be irresponsible yet again and ask them: Why are we paying through our noses and being robbed of vital services?

I'm also going to be reactionary and say: We cannot let this go through unopposed.

The News Shopper stands for the community. And when the community loses out, we WILL not remain silent.

ANDREW PARKES, EDITOR