COLUMN: Talking Politics - Calderdale Council is to set its budget soon

The Council budget is being set against a backdrop of a cost-of-living crisis. Inflation is at a thirty-year high. The Conservatives have broken their manifesto promises with rises to taxes, and a failure to protect the pensions triple lock.

Sadly, our Council tax bills are likely to rise too. A large chunk of the increase is made up of the ‘social care precept’. This is the Government’s way of pushing the cost of social care onto council tax bill payers. The precept is now forecast to be £198.68 for a Band D property (roughly 11 per cent of the council tax bill). Against this backdrop, we are seeking to amend the proposals put forward by the Labour administration running Calderdale.

We would insulate more homes, scrap evening parking charges, tackle litter and fly-tipping problems introduce a real-time air pollution monitoring system and expand regeneration projects to cover forgotten parts of the Borough like Pellon.

This would be funded by reforming our broken ‘strong leader and cabinet system’ of governance and growing the council’s alternative sources of income. For example through its tourist attractions.

The first thing we would do is insulate homes of residents struck by devastating fuel increases and the cost-of-living crisis. This would reduce bills, and help to tackle the climate emergency. Insulating homes can tackle poverty, improve health, and tackle the climate emergency.

Secondly, we would put additional funding into a new approach to tackle litter and fly-tipping. Newham LBC and Keep Britain Tidy’s work to tackle fly-tipping won the Local Government Chronicle Award 2021 for environmental services. They reduced fly-tipping by 41 per cent. We would copy their innovative work, learning from the best practice in Local Government.

Thirdly, we want to reverse the evening parking charges introduced by Labour. Businesses in our town centres tell us these charges have hurt them at a time they are struggling to recover from COVID-19.

We need thriving markets, and that includes evening events that people can easily travel to. Otherwise, how can our markets and small businesses compete with out-of-town shopping with free parking.

We will fund these improvements by reforming Calderdale’s broken cabinet system. A system where a tiny minority of councillors are hand-picked by the council leader to form a Cabinet. These councillors enjoy lucrative additional payments on top of their basic allowances. We would scrap these payments and revert the council to the committee system where every councillor gets a say.

We would also look to make more of an income through improving tourist attractions within the council’s control. For example, transforming the Manor Heath Jungle Experience into a ‘Blue and Green Planet Experience’. A place you would want to take your family on a rainy day to enjoy learning about nature and seeing animals and butterflies.

Calderdale has always had a Liberal tradition in its politics, and we will continue to put forward a positive alternative for our Borough.