Allotment holders pay the price for new pool

Those who like allotments in our city must be a bit confused. On one hand allotment holders are being told they can no longer get any financial support from the city council because of the nasty government taking it's money away. On the other hand, news about the proposed £20 million swimming pool in Exeter has been presented as Labour investing in the city despite the recession. However the pool will not be magically produced by the Labour-dominated Exeter City Council - it needs to be paid for. Their plan is to save up for half of it and borrow the rest. The only trouble is that they are still paying for the museum and a raft of other unfunded projects. Since the Council was completely debt-free in 2008, Labour have rapidly run up a debt of £35 million - that is about £290 for every man, woman and child in Exeter. This debt has to be repaid with interest.

Labour are busy cutting into local services to pay for this debt. They claim that the government has cut the Council grant. In fact the cut in grant has been replaced in full by a fund called the New Homes Bonus, where the Council gets an extra 6 years worth of Council Tax from the government for every new house built in Exeter. On top, a reform to the business rates means that part of any local growth goes to the Council, unlike before. So unlike many councils who are reluctant to build houses, Exeter City Council has been completely protected from loss of cash. Their tax rises and service cuts are solely because of the rising debt repayment costs from their local borrowing. The £10 million being saved up to build this swimming pool could easily be used to protect services, for example the enforcement services now reduced to just prioritise parking fees, the reduction in bins in the city centre, and the withdrawal of the entire financial support for the cities allotments.

It seems to me that Labour are cutting services, trying to pin the blame on the government and taking credit for sparkly new buildings. In reality they are forced to cut services by their own debts racked up over the last 6 years and will force the Council in the future to cut further services to pay for the pool they are planning now.

Cllr Pete Edwards, Leader of the Council, often tells me that more people voted for Labour in local elections, so they can't be wrong. Can they?