The Liberal Democrats at county hall, including your local County Councillor Allan Witherick, are proposing a budget which will make deep cuts in waste and excessively costly contracts.

Lib Dem Leader Chris White said: ‘There must be a zero council tax increase, as we proposed in our manifesto last year. But there also need to be major savings in management overheads, working practices and contract terms.
‘The fact that Herts Highways is 81% more expensive than the arrangements in other authorities is just one example of how our council tax is being wasted by the county council under the current administration. On Friday we heard that the county council is prepared to spend £110,000 on lawyers in pursuit of a £300 pound dispute shows just how out of control the situation has become.

The vast majority of the council’s budget is thrown at private companies and in these times a saving of 2.5% is easily achievable. We would want to see much more in future years.’

The Liberal Democrats are also proposing redirecting spending into the following areas (figures are in millions of pounds):
£2.0m Increase spend on maintaining footways
£1.0m Improve reactive pothole repairs – ‘pothole mole’
£0.5m Restore full team of local highways managers and improve inspections
£1.5m More frequent bus services
£1.0m Step up gully cleansing to combat flooding
£1.0m Start introducing 20 mph limits and zones
£13.6m Additional spending on winter recovery of highways
£1.0m Improve youth provision
£0.2m Restore school uniform allowance
£1.0m Increase social workers’ pay to help ensure full staffing

Allan added: ‘These are priorities that I think local residents will recognise. Our proposals will actually make a difference rather than Tory tinkering at the edges.’