ITEM CC8 COUNTY COUNCIL – 12 FEBRUARY 2008
SERVICE AND RESOURCE PLANNING 2008/09 TO 2012/13
GREEN GROUP BUDGET AMENDMENTS
The Oxfordshire County Council Green Group is proud to present budget amendments that would provide £11,918,000 more than the Conservatives, over five years, to:
- Make life better for elderly and disabled people and their carers - Make Oxfordshire a leader in protecting the environment and combating Climate Change - Fund a study of a congestion charge which could radically reduce traffic and improve public transport - Improve road safety, especially for children - Promote life-long education - Safeguard Cogges Farm - Improve services for children
We can do all this, while maintaining a low Council Tax increase of 4.175% by:
- Collecting 4.6 million pounds by charging the same fees as the City Council for night-time and Sunday Street and Park and Ride parking, which the Cabinet makes free. The largely out-of-town parkers would scarcely notice the charges of 60 pence to a pound.
- Reducing an over-ambitious ICT program by 10% to save £600,000.
- Eliminating the glossy Oxfordshire Magazine to save £250,000
- Eliminating 6 over-paid (£90,000+ per year) Education Advisor Posts to save £1,050,000
- Taking advantage of £800,000 in one-off unexpected income and £100,000 per year reduction in the Flood levy
Better Life for Elderly and Disabled Carers
It is possible to help people with disabilities to live longer in their own homes but it cannot be done on the cheap. To make their lives comfortable and meaningful we provide about £6.087 million, over five years, to:
- Build care from the ground up, with the active control and support of local communities and voluntary groups - Provide flexible transport to get people to the places where they want to go - Make available advice on benefits and money problems, on carers’ services and problems, and on the availability of health, social care and voluntary services. The advice has to be followed by active help in making sure people who can’t fight on their own get the help to which they are entitled. We would offer such a service in every GP surgery in the County. - Funding to reduce bed-blocking which is damaging for hospitals and for the people who wait in an uncomfortable and dangerous place - Substantially increase support to the Carers whose hard work is the basis of a decent life for their loved ones. The largest need is for respite care so they can get the rest they need to carry on without breaking their own health. A substantial part would go to parents of severely disabled children. A study in Oxfordshire last year by Mencap found that many such parents were literally at breaking point. - Improve training in dementia care for home care and residential workers. Trained workers can improve the quality of life of dementia sufferers.
Making Oxfordshire a Leader in Protecting the Environment and combating Climate Change
We invest £2,928,000, over five years, to produce sustainable energy, reduce energy waste, increase recycling, and make climate protection a practical part of the life of every school in the County. We do this by:
- Creating a fund to which statutory and voluntary groups can apply with practical ideas to increase energy efficiency. - Giving money to the District Councils and Oxford City Council to give every school in the County that wants it, £5,000 to produce solar and/or wind energy. The substantial earnings remain with the school to demonstrate the advantages to the students. We also provide the money necessary to make sure every school recycles as much as possible. At present the majority of schools do not recycle. This is not the message to give to children. - Creating an ‘Urban Mine’. This is a site that receives large items for reuse, such as doors and windows. These are repaired and sold to the public. The sales cover running costs and the reduced landfill saves £72,000 a year in landfill fines and taxes. - Employing a Cycling Officer to help increase safe cycle use, reducing the use of petrol
Congestion Charge Study
There are exciting possibilities for introducing a congestion charge to Oxford. This city suffers from excessive and increasing traffic. A congestion charge would provide millions of pounds to improve public transport and safety. We provide £100,000 for the first step: a full study of the possibilities and problems of such a charge.
Improve Road Safety, Especially for Children
- We provide the £300,000 required to make every street in Oxford a 20 miles per hour zone. This will substantially reduce the frequency and severity of accidents - We provide £500,000 to create protected crossings and other methods to increase safety on the roads, particularly for children. At present there is a shortage of funds which means applications for protected crossings are rejected unless there is evidence that serious accidents have already occurred. We will eliminate this madness and save lives.
Promote Life-Long Education
Adult and continuing education have been hit by government rules that make it difficult to subsidise such education for any courses which do not lead directly to employment. This is a narrow and short-sighted approach. Many people, who cannot afford the full price of classes that add to their enjoyment and understanding of the world have been penalised. We provide £750,000 to reduce the loss.
Government rules have reduced the number of people who can access free ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) classes. Many of these people are in families on low income. We provide £50,000 in bursaries to be administered by the County Council to such people. We are lucky that so many of non-English speakers want to improve their English and join our communities more fully. We make this possible.
Safeguard Cogges Farm
The County council is responsible for the neglect which has led to Cogges Farm needing heavy subsidies. The proposal to reduce their subsidy by a third over each of three years makes it very difficult for the Farm to create a viable future. We provide the full subsidy for three years to provide the time needed to make a happy long-term solution possible.
Improve Services for Children
Restorative justice, which requires offenders to come face to face with the people they have violated and crime prevention have been very successful with older children and the general public. These approaches should be extended to younger children. This could reduce the number of children who are suspended or expelled from schools and influence children before they become involved in crime. We provide the funds for a three-year pilot to see how this can best be done.
There are many children in our schools with special gifts and talents. Some are successful in many areas, others shine in one. These are often ignored by the need to provide attention to ether children. We fund a three-year pilot for a ‘gifted and talented co-ordinator’ and support to help these children make good use of their gifts.
There are many unaccompanied young asylum seekers and insufficient funds to keep them safe and cared for while their applications are considered. Some are sleeping on floors and struggling from day to day to keep warm and fed. They don’t get the education other children get. We provide a fund to give these children more of what they need.
(Green Group Budget Amendments - download as .doc file)
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