Council leader Peter Marland says it's time to come clean about how they will find the £30m of cuts that will be needed to balance the MK Council budget
Earlier this week, the Conservatives have claimed the biggest threat to Milton Keynes is another year of Labour wasting taxpayers hard earned money
But Labour have demanded Tories come clean on what cuts they are hiding.
Cllr Peter Marland, Leader of MK Council said, “In less than a week’s time the people of MK face a choice over who they want to run MK Council. They must be told how the Tories plan to balance the budget, what is their plan? What would they cut? What is their vision?”
He continued, “The best they can do is stick to their script about reserves and the money saving changes to the council offices. Both claims have been widely discredited as a plan. Yet whatever they say about Labour, the basic fact remains that MK Council has to find £30m in cuts over the next few years to balance the books. It is an inconvenient truth that if they want to run the council they can’t just have a slogan, they need to say what they’ll actually do and how they’ll pay for it. It is a repeating pattern, nothing they say has any depth beyond a well rehearsed sound-bite.”
He concluded, “Since 2011 MK Council has made over £144m in cuts. The Tories don’t want to talk about cuts, but the reality of running a council is that you can’t just say you’ll pass a balanced budget, you have to do it. By refusing to tell the public where they’d cut, and the more their two scripted lines unravel, the more it shows they have no plan, no budget and no vision. It’s time for them to tell voters - how would MK Tories balance the books?”
Leader of the MK Conservatives Cllr Alex Walker said, “The biggest threat to Milton Keynes is another year of Labour wasting taxpayers’ hard earned money. “Labour have wasted millions on the Council offices refurbishment, they have stashed £50 million into reserves and failed to tackle the big challenges Milton Keynes’ faces. Their financial mismanagement is reckless and unsustainable. “Labour can try and hide from their failures on potholes and homelessness, but residents will not be fooled. “We have a plan for change that we will be proud to implement if we win on Thursday. That will include delivering a balanced budget that will deliver better services and better value for money.”
