The Leader of the Swindon Labour Group, Councillor Jim Grant, has accused the Conservative Group on Swindon Borough Council of using Council literature that goes out to all households and paid for from residents council-taxes, as a party political tool.
The Leader of the Swindon Labour Group, Councillor Jim Grant, has accused the Conservative Group on Swindon Borough Council of using Council literature that goes out to all households and paid for from residents council-taxes, as a party political tool.
Jim Grant calls on Swindon Conservatives to apologise for using council resources to peddle their political message
In the section of the Council-tax leaflet that provides a breakdown of where every £100 of each property’s council-tax goes, it states that 8 out of £100 of council-tax is spent on “investment in major projects”, which in actual fact means the Council’s annual debt charges.
Swindon Council’s net debt is set to be as high as £193.5m in 2015/16 and is set to increase increase by £97m by 2017/18, according to a Treasury Management Statement in February. It will increase from £193.5m in 2015/16 to £290m in 2017/18.
According to the Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy this increase in council debt will lead to increases in annual debt charges by £2m each year and the council already spends £9m on debt charges each year.
When the last Labour administration on Swindon Council left office in 2003 they left a £6m treasury surplus.
The Labour Group Leader, Councillor Jim Grant, said: “This council-tax leaflet has blatantly been misused to peddle a political message and I think it is disgraceful. The Conservatives have in the past defended the levels of debt they have racked up because they wanted to spend money on major projects. I have no problem with them defending their position but to airbrush out the levels of debt and debt charges they have accumulated while running the Council is shameful. What they’ve done is use council-taxpayers money and council communications as a way of peddling their own political message, while misleading the public.
This statement is also factually inaccurate as not all council debt has been accumulated from spending on major projects. All council capital spend from spending on major projects to resurfacing roads has had an impact on council debt levels.
I would like to hear the Conservative Council apologise for using council resources to peddle their political message and commit to never doing this again. Anything other than this will show just how low the Conservative Group will stoop to retain power on the Council”