Cross-posted: Some thoughts on Bristol's Budget

My piece for the Bristol Lib Dem website on Tuesday's Budget decision:

Politics can be murky business at times but in Bristol things are remarkably clear following the Budget debate yesterday: your Council Tax will be going up by 1.95% in April.

Something else is clear, too: all the parties had their price in supporting the Mayor's budget. Only one, though, was prepared to defend the ordinary Council Tax payer against an increase in this regressive tax.

Only one party recognised that, while the economy is starting to recover, household budgets remain tight and argued that people should be protected from increased costs, if possible.

Only one party had the vision to find the funding that would have enabled a Council Tax freeze: 50% from Central Government, the rest from council reserves set aside in case of various eventualities but often untouched for years.

Only one party... but the Mayor and Council rejected this approach, and voted through a budget that will see every Council Tax payer pay more.

So what of the other parties? Well, Labour are arguing that the Lib Dems' Freeze The Tax campaign is a cynical ploy. But whilst Labour talk tough and refer to a "cost of living crisis", they have refused to support a practical measure to address this. Now, that is what I call cynical.

They argue that they have managed to obtain a package of reversed cuts unlike any achieved by any opposition party in Bristol Council's history. The reality, though, is that all it took for them to move from a position where "we cannot support the budget" to a position of support was £1.3million of cuts reversed. £1.3million from a budget of £389million.

Ironically, £1.3million is precisely what a Council Tax Freeze would cost. But the source of the funds was different. Had Labour been prepared to negotiate, they could have had their amendment and a Council Tax Freeze. Like I said, cynical.

Meanwhile, the Tories - whose representative on the Mayor's cabinet is Deputy Mayor and has responsibility for Finance matters - were whole-heartedly in favour of the Budget. Indeed, they did not table any amendments to the substantive debate.

Whilst nationally Eric Pickles and other Conservative ministers pushed Councils to freeze the tax, the Bristol Tories chose to support raising them. The self-describing 'Party of Lower Taxes' does not, it appears, believe in them for Bristolians.

The Mayor - in a party of one - is often caricatured as still being a Lib Dem in all but name. After last night, though, I believe that that notion can be put to rest. He was adamant from the start that he would not freeze the tax - and with the help of all parties but his former one, he got his way.

Finally, the Greens - what was their contribution? Well, as with the Tories, they brought forward no amendments. They have variously said that this was because their arguments are national, that without Trident the Council would have more to spend, that a 'Robin Hood Tax' on financial transactions would be a cure-all, that they argued their case in Cabinet and behind the scenes and that 1.95% rise is modest and OK as below inflation... 

Whatever, the over-riding impression is that, at best, they have failed to engage and, at worst, they would have wanted a higher rise such as the 4.95% being levied in Green-controlled Brighton.

So when your Council Tax bill arrives, and you're forking out more each month, remember that there was one party prepared to take a stand for freezing the tax, one party that wasn't bought off, one party that wasn't complicit in raising your taxes and one party that wasn't prepared to stand idly by.

It wasn't a cynical ploy and it really could have been achieved but for the other parties who took positions contrary to their rhetoric, policy or both.

Andrew

My Letter to The Post (unpublished)

The Mayor in Bristol has been making waves - first with his approach to his first budget earlier this year and subsequently with his plans for a rapid roll-out of Residents' Parking Zones across the city - regardless of the needs or wants of residents in various disparate parts of the City. Whilst some parts of the City undoubtedly did need local schemes, many patently don't.

 

As the only City to have opted for a Mayor in last year's referendums, the workings of Bristol will come under political and academic scrutiny over the next few years. Opinion will, I'm sure, continue to be divided on the pros and cons of the Mayoral model (or, as this piece in The Economist suggests, the rights and wrongs of the City Mayor model).

 

Whatever side of the argument you're on (and I'm not in favour of having a Mayor), it would be good if lessons could be learned from the way things have gone so far in Bristol. In particular, I wish the current Mayor would make more time for Council meetings and pay more attention to his fellow representatives and Scrutiny processes.

 

It was on this subject that I wrote to the Bristol Post last week - although the letter wasn't published there:

 

 

Dear Sir,

 

I read with interest the letter from the Lib Dem Deputy Leader, Christian Martin, published on the 15th July 2013 (‘“Unclear” over Security Issues’). It seems to me that the ability to schedule scrutiny and other meetings of the council in the knowledge that the Mayor would be free to attend would aid the wheels of democracy in the City.

 

Whilst the Mayor’s drive to get on and do things is, in many ways, commendable, he seems not to realise that being at the helm of a council is not the same as being the director of one of his businesses. The executive power of the council may be vested solely in him but there are 70 other duly elected Councillors. The Mayor must respect their role in the decision making process if he is not to be a dictator, and the council not to be a mere talking shop: he must recognise that he has a moral (if not legal) responsibility to submit to the questioning and scrutiny of Council.

 

As things stand, Mayor Ferguson makes much of how he listens - but his behaviour tells a different story. First with the budget and subsequently with the proposed Residents’ Parking Zones, the Mayor’s approach has been to seek to railroad decisions and avoid full transparency in the process. When the approach fails, he then concedes ground and argues he was listening all along - despite all evidence to the contrary.

 

With the furore over RPZs now put to bed, the Mayor has an opportunity to repair fractious relationships with Councillors and opening up his diary would be a good first step. Doing so would be a sign of leadership; as well as demonstrating a willingness to demonstrate accountability and openness - another two of the Bell Principles that he cited as key to his vision for an Independent Mayor.

 

Without a change in the way the Mayor and the Council relate to each other, the city risks falling into the "fortress culture" that the Mayor said he wished to break. Having promised to encourage “meaningful citizen participation”, he has some way to go in achieving this aim. As things are, members of the public attending council meetings and committees are likely to find the Mayor most noticeable by his absence.

 

Yours Faithfully,

Andrew Brown

 

 

N.B. This was an abridged form of a longer blog post, which you can read on Google Drive, here.

On being a Bristol Lib Dem today

It's not been a great day to be a Lib Dem in Bristol. We've lost 9 seats, and lost our position as the largest party on the council. 

The party's maxim - where we work, we win - has never been so wrong in the case of some of our hardest working councillors. Two losses were particularly galling: Jon Rogers who came third behind the Greens and Labour in Ashley ward and Steve Comer who lost by one vote in Eastville.

It wasn't just existing councillors who worked hard but didn't win; for example, Alex Smethurst pounded the pavements of Kingsweston for months but lost out to both the Independents for Bristol Party and Labour.

It wasn't all doom and gloom, though, with holds in Clifton East, Cotham, Henleaze and Redland as well as in Cabot ward where I so spent much of the past weeks since the bitterly cold, wet night back in March when we started canvassing. Having invested so much personally, I was delighted that Dr Mark Wright was re-elected: he is a real asset to the Council as a whole as well as the Lib Dem Group.

Politics can be cruel and harsh - but it is also cyclical. When these wards were last fought, four years ago, the Lib Dems benefited from a rising tide against Gordon Brown's Labour government. Some of today's losses represent not much more than the receding of that anti-Labour tide.

That's not to say that there are not lessons to learn, of course - and the group and local party will seek to learn those. It's been a hard few months and an even harder few hours but Lib Dems are nothing if not resilient and I can confidently assert that whilst we may be down, we are not out.

There are now elections at all levels over the next 3 years, so if you're a Liberal (with or without a capital "L") in Bristol and you want to get active and help us bounce back in the build-up to the "all up" elections in 2016, e-mail me.

Andrew