Council leader launches attack on minister (From York Press)
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City of York Council leader launches attack on minister Eric Pickles
9:30am Saturday 11th February 2012 in News
A GOVERNMENT minister has been labelled “a hypocrite and a bully” by York’s council leader after his department claimed the city had wasted public money.
Aides to Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles singled out City of York Council as an example of unnecessary spending by Labour-controlled authorities following its proposals to raise council tax by 2.9 per cent next year, highlighting a £400,000 bill in 2010/11 for consultants to work on a controversial waste incinerator scheme.
Council leader James Alexander also highlighted that the spending on plans for an incinerator at Allerton Park between York and Harrogate – to be built through a private finance initiative between City of York and North Yorkshire County Councils – happened under the previous Liberal Democrat administration.
He said the scheme would reduce the city’s landfill tax payments by £60 million over a 29-year period.
He also said accepting a Government grant to freeze council tax in 2012/13 would mean an extra £2.2 million in cuts over the next two years or a huge rise in 2013/14 bills, when the tax offer is not expected to be available.
Mr Pickles accused some Labour councils of wasting money on “vanity projects” and being “more interested in filling town hall coffers than freezing council tax”.
Coun Alexander said: “He is a hypocrite and a bully because this council tax con is dishonest and not a good idea for the taxpayers of York.
“The Energy from Waste plant was voted through in York before Labour won control of the council, and the Conservative-controlled county council is picking up 75 per cent of the cost, but Eric Pickles doesn’t mention this.”
A Department for Communities and Local Government spokesman said it maintained its stance that York’s proposed council tax rise was “incredibly inconsiderate” and it was “hard to see how this can be justified”.
Coun Alexander has also criticised Housing Minister Grant Shapps’ comments in the House of Commons this week that councils planning to raise tax levels in 2012/13 could see their funding base altered the following year.
“The Government seems to want to remove the ability for councils to take local decisions, which I think is disgraceful, because as soon as a local decision is taken against their agenda, they threaten political retribution,” he said.
Comments(26)
Pete the Brickie
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10:12am Sat 11 Feb 12
jgycfc
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10:34am Sat 11 Feb 12
xtc
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10:39am Sat 11 Feb 12
Madasanibbotson
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11:06am Sat 11 Feb 12
Isn't it time that Council Leaders were only appointed if they can demonstarte a knowledge of fianance ?
monkeyhanger
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11:20am Sat 11 Feb 12
Cllr.John Galvin
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11:25am Sat 11 Feb 12
working class tory
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11:39am Sat 11 Feb 12
Alexander is going to spend £2,500,000.00 this years investigating ways to better spend council funds. He could have taken the grant and not assigned this ludicrous amount of money to a pointless project! Roll-on 2015, though the damage will be done by then. Alexander will leaving his desk with a post-it note with "there's no money left" written on it.
mightberight
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11:43am Sat 11 Feb 12
jgycfc
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11:47am Sat 11 Feb 12
Madasanibbotson
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11:56am Sat 11 Feb 12
working class tory wrote:Alexander Investigate !!! He couldn't investigate a snowsdrift. Don't think he could run a school tuck shop.
"He also said accepting a Government grant to freeze council tax in 2012/13 would mean an extra £2.2 million in cuts over the next two years or a huge rise in 2013/14 bills, when the tax offer is not expected to be available."
Alexander is going to spend £2,500,000.00 this years investigating ways to better spend council funds. He could have taken the grant and not assigned this ludicrous amount of money to a pointless project! Roll-on 2015, though the damage will be done by then. Alexander will leaving his desk with a post-it note with "there's no money left" written on it.
pedalling paul
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12:27pm Sat 11 Feb 12
monkeyhanger wrote:Nothing wasteful about encouraging cycling to school. A damned sight cheaper than trying to build new roads that wil only get bunged up quickly with more car journeys.
So the need an extra 2.2 million in cuts,well I have just read that they spent £3.6 million on some scheme to encourage cycling to school.Even without waste like that they could cut a few highly paid middle and senior managers and consultants and save a fortune.Things have changed the council needs to be run like a business not a cosy club.
mightberight
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12:37pm Sat 11 Feb 12
roskoboskovic
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1:09pm Sat 11 Feb 12
marvell
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2:46pm Sat 11 Feb 12
Pot...kettle...black
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R'Marcus
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4:11pm Sat 11 Feb 12
jgycfc wrote:Correction.
James Alexander is a career politician who sadly is practising with this city. He's a long way to go if someone doesn't agree with him and he results to name calling. It's a good job he's not running the council... Oh dear.
Alexander is a wanna-be politician.
The people of York Outer constituance
know well how be abanded the voters in May 2010.
Alexander, we all remember your lies.
The Straight Bat
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5:58pm Sat 11 Feb 12
Interesting how the usual Tory and LibDem suspects did not mention the actual contents of this story and just went straight for their usual insults.
Ayemgee
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6:20pm Sat 11 Feb 12
I would question the right of a government department spokesperson to make political comments on how a public body runs its affairs? Such politically motivated comments should be issued only by identifiable politicians not civil servants who are supposed to be even handed.
It seems ministers are using Whitehall civil servants to try to paint a rosy picture of how slashing public expenditure, jobs, and services is good for the "Big Society". That seems to me like cutting off the legs of an Olympic runner and wondering why he didn't make it to the stadium.
Didn't Churchill once say "Give us the tools and we will finish the job." I don't think he meant destroy morale, productivity and send the country into freefall!
It's also interesting to hear Mr Cameron blaming the rest of the world for his government's inept economic performance. I don't recall that argument being permissable when the previous governemnt's policies were under his attack.
We also now know what Mr C. mean't when he claimed that he had just one thing to say about his policies- "NHS"
No hope suckers!
the butler
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6:33pm Sat 11 Feb 12
The Straight Bat
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7:21pm Sat 11 Feb 12
York1900
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9:33pm Sat 11 Feb 12
The last LibDems council wasted so much money with there plans and gave the City nothing but traffic chaos
newscritic
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9:44pm Sat 11 Feb 12
We could then soon have the budget under control.
The Tories are cutting for cutting sake and expecting council services and employees and therefore the local economy to pay for those cuts.
Austerity is such a dumb policy.
jgycfc
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9:45am Sun 12 Feb 12
It's very bad form to not be able to challenge someone when you think they may have got something wrong. Even if they are the leader. And sulking and calling people bullies is grossly immature.
Torycouncil2015
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10:09am Sun 12 Feb 12
jgycfc wrote:Well Straight Bat would stick up fo James Alexander as he is James Alexander! Not even his Cabine colleagues find it easy to do that anymore. Say wht you like about the last lot but York does have something to show for it. Energise Uni pool Joseph Rowntree School etc. Calamity James wants us all to sign up to £20 million yes £20 million! of debt for crackpot schemes such as City Centre wi fi. The cost I paying back that debt alone would allow us to have a council tax freeze. He also doesn't mention the extra £2 million a year from the government he's getting for the next 5 years. That could be used to fill the gap next year if tax was frozen. What's he doing with it? Chucking it in his £28 million city centre wi fi vanity pot
If I understand "The Straight Bat" right, if you criticise His Holiness James Alexander then you must therefore not have read the story, and also be a tory or lib dem. interesting. I fall into none of the above camps, as the story is about people calling each other names. Pickles and his great big head is playing the game, Alexander is resulting to calling him a "bully" for criticising decisions.
It's very bad form to not be able to challenge someone when you think they may have got something wrong. Even if they are the leader. And sulking and calling people bullies is grossly immature.
Saracen
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5:08pm Sun 12 Feb 12
FACT - socialism creates more dependants than Class A drugs and is twice as harmful.
Frodo Baggins
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8:10pm Sun 12 Feb 12
g/2012/02/why-were-r
aising-council-tax/
Just for clarity, I think this is the full article that the press got their "quotes" from. Hope the link works?
Madasanibbotson says...
9:44am Sat 11 Feb 12