THE only reason the merger of local councils is proposed is to save money. Why the need?
Because the Conservative party in government is progressively halving the funding to all local councils in England. This has hardly been reported. Traditionally councils had two sources of funding: council tax (and its predecessors) and a central government grant. On average this was 50/50 of all councils’ income.
Since Cameron came to power in 2010 and by the current Conservative party in government, that grant is being steadily reduced and the Conservatives’ aim is that it should be zero by 2020 in the name of ‘reducing public spending’ which some people seem to think (why?) is a ‘good thing’ and then get angry when local services are cut as a result.
Councils have no choice but to cut public services such as public toilets or to merge councils in order to balance their books. The problem lies not with local councils but with the Conservative government which is undermining them by progressively slashing funding.
KEITH ULYATT
Vice-Chair Membership, Poole Labour Party, Cromwell Road, Poole
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