Liberal Democrat Councillors in B&NES say they will be working hard over the next four years to hold the Conservative administration to account and closely scrutinise their plans for the area.
Councillor Dine Romero (Liberal Democrat, Southdown), Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group, said: “At yesterday’s Cabinet meeting Lib Dem Councillors questioned Cabinet members closely on their plans for the next four years.
“We are glad to hear that they intend to follow through on many projects we started under the Liberal Democrat administration.
“These include investment to renew local leisure centres, the nationally-acclaimed Connecting Families service, the Bath Transport Strategy and the Innovation Quays regeneration project.
“However we do have concerns about their intentions in other areas such as budget cuts and the east of Bath park and ride, where their plans have not yet been made public.
“The Liberal Democrat Group will be working hard to scrutinise the actions of the administration going forward and ensure the Cabinet members are held to account for the decisions they make.”
Councillor Andrew Furse (Liberal Democrat, Kingsmead), the finance spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, added: “The Conservative Cabinet has announced budget cuts worth £38m over the next four years.
“This is an extremely challenging target and the Conservatives must be honest with residents: achieving it will likely involve major changes to frontline services.
“The Liberal Democrats have called on the Conservative administration to follow our example in looking for better ways of working and new income streams to balance the books, such as investing in and increasing commercial property income.
“Over the last four years, this approach allowed our administration to meet savings imposed by the government whilst protecting key services, investing for the future and freezing Council tax each year.
“The Liberal Democrats will work hard to hold the Conservative administration to account and ensure that services to vulnerable residents are protected.”
