DECISIONS about spending millions of pounds of York taxpayers' money are being made with inadequate public consultation, Liberal Democrats claimed today.

Proposals to ask for city residents' views were criticised by York's Liberal Democrat leader, Steve Galloway, as "inadequate and deeply flawed."

But Labour has defended City of York Council's plan to circulate a questionnaire at its ward committee meetings, which are open to the public, asking for views on its budget, which will be finalised in February.

Coun Bob Scrase, the council's local affairs spokesman, said: "As part of our budget setting, the council is committed to involving residents as much as possible in the process, and ward committees provide an ideal opportunity for residents to express their views."

A council spokesman explained the consultation procedure: "Residents are being provided with a leaflet which gives background information on how the council is funded, where its money is spent and what is likely to happen with funding next year.

"Residents then have an opportunity to complete a feedback form which enables them to highlight what they believe are the spending priorities in their ward."

But Councillor Galloway said: "The council literature asks residents to choose between broad expenditure headings such as education and social services.

"The consultation fails to present the real choices that councillors will have to make against the background of what is expected to be another unfavourable financial settlement from central government."

He criticised the Labour group for being too afraid to criticise the Government for its funding policies, which were known to give York an unfair share of cash.

It is already estimated that the council must find savings of £2.5 million next year, and will need to raise council tax by at least 6.2 per cent. City MP Hugh Bayley said in 2000 that unitary authorities such as York did face "hopeless" bias when the Government worked out its level of financial support.

He said: "There are strong arguments for the new unitary authorities to get a better deal.

"The funding rules for local authorities, developed under the Tories, are hopelessly biased against new unitary authorities and rural authorities with sparse populations."

Updated: 10:55 Monday, October 07, 2002