Pay back allowances before lecturing us on council finance

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Sun 15th Oct 2006

Responding to a motion tabled by Cardiff Labour councillors criticising the council's Liberal Democrat administration for a projected overspend in social services, Liberal Democrat council leader Rodney Berman said:

"I am not going to be lectured by the Labour Group on finance when many of their members, including their leader Greg Owens, are refusing to pay back tens of thousands of pounds in allowances that were paid to them both unlawfully and unreasonably during the time the council was previously run by Labour. Before telling us what to do, I believe they need get their house in order and take steps to pay that money back.

"I also believe this is an attempt to deflect blame from the council's current financial situation on the Labour Assembly Government. The root cause of the projected overspend in social services has been the imposition of more and more responsibilities upon the council by the Labour-run Assembly, without sufficient additional finance being given to us to fund them. As we head towards next year's Assembly elections, Labour clearly wants to cover that up.

"It also needs to be remembered that Labour has repeatedly stood in the way of a stable administration on Cardiff Council since the last local elections. Labour councillors have used their influence with party colleagues in the Assembly to block the establishment of an all-party administration, continually stating that all they want to do is oppose. They are just wreckers without responsibility who seem to be repeatedly working to ensure that the council fails. Clearly they haven't learned anything from being thrown out of office over two years ago."

Liberal Democrat Chief Whip, Nigel Howells, added: "Labour also paints a warped view of the present Liberal Democrat administration's record. In comparison to the previous Labour administration, the Liberal Democrats have significantly improved many of the council's day to day services - just as we promised at the last elections. Social services, branded the worst in England and Wales under Labour four years ago, have now significantly improved and this has been recognised by the Welsh Assembly Government. For the first time since the unitary authority was formed, Cardiff has spent above the Welsh average on our schools - all down to the Liberal Democrats. In contrast under Labour, Cardiff was one of the lowest spenders on schools in Wales .

"Under Labour, Cardiff had the lowest recycling rates in Wales , but now recycling rates are beginning to soar across the city following the construction of a new £4 million recycling plant and the roll-out of free city-wide recycling collections by the Liberal Democrats. We have also ended the very costly legal dispute with our District Auditor over unlawful payments of councillors' allowances under Labour and begun to restore trust with the people of Cardiff by cutting allowances for senior councillors back in 2004, freezing all allowances ever since and rejecting the introduction of pensions for councillors.

"The Empire Pool, knocked down by Labour in 1998 without firm plans in place for its replacement, is finally rising again in the International Sports Village - a project that Labour could only talk about but which the Liberal Democrats are now delivering. We also won ' Britain in Bloom' in 2005 and this year won gold in the competition's European equivalent, the 'Entente Florale'

"Not only that, but all these significant improvements have been delivered whilst the Liberal Democrats have kept down the average annual band D council tax increase to below 2% - a direct contrast to the average rise of around 11% under Labour."

Councillor Berman added: "Whilst bringing forward many changes to improves services, in many case sorting out problems left for us by years of Labour inaction, there have inevitably been some concerns from some quarters of the electorate. But sometimes this has been fuelled by Labour irresponsibility - it was Labour that called on us to introduced schools' reorganisation on a city-wide basis, and then it was Labour that criticised us for publishing a city-wide proposal.

"And Labour seems to be ignoring the fact that the Liberal Democrat administration has already moved swiftly to bring this year's budget back into line once the projected overspend in social services was identified. We have already approved a raft of measures to ensure the council can reach a balanced budget by the end of the year but in a way that will still allow us to meet all our statutory obligations in social services. We certainly won't support the approach that Labour followed in the past of failing to meet our social services responsibilities - have they now forgotten that this was one of the reasons they were thrown out of office by the people of Cardiff in 2004?"