Budget Secret Decisions

Written by Cllr. Alan Gloak and published in the Mid Somerset Gazette on Thu 28th Jan 2010

Dear Sir,

The presents around our Christmas trees will have been unwrapped on Christmas day, the excitement over and the mystery revealed. But one present remains wrapped, even now, from the Conservatives at Somerset Council. Inside, are details of cuts which the Conservatives will impose in their first budget. Wouldn't you like to open it now and see what services are going to be cut? Well you can't. That's because the decisions have already been taken at a secret session of the Tory cabinet in December, from which all members of the public who might be affected by the decisions were excluded. Councillors could attend, but only the Conservative cabinet were allowed to vote. The rest of us would be in big trouble if we told you about any of the cuts that were decided.

In case anyone thinks secrecy is normal practice, let me explain that councillors usually share some of the initial ideas about the budget confidentially where peoples' jobs are affected, but proposals become public before decisions are made. The budget meeting in February is public, where residents can have their say, and every councillor can vote. Indeed, final changes to the budget can happen at that meeting. This is the first year that most of the decisions at County Hall have already been taken in secret by a few councillors months before the budget is presented.

Yours sincerely,

Cllr. Alan Gloak