| Topic: | Re:Re:Proposed closure of Wandsworth Museum | |
| Posted by: | Malcolm Grimston | |
| Date/Time: | 11/01/07 13:38:00 |
| Obviously at the time of last May's election we did not know that the government was going to chop our grant by £5 million, nor was it clear if capping would remain in place (it has). So we could not have known what levels of savings would be necessary to maintain a low council tax and protect core services. In any case it would be impossible in a manifesto to predict every decision that would be necessary in the next four years. British democracy involves electing governments, local and national, on a vision and set of principles. The elected government is then expected to apply those principles to the changing circumstances in which it finds itself. I and my colleagues are motivated solely by a desire to serve the community. Sometimes that means one section of the community feeling badly done by over a particular issue, since we can't do all the nice things that everyone could think of. But I think it is farcical to claim that, after 28 years running the local council, the local electors did not know what kind of council they were getting. The truth is the exact opposite - those on fixed incomes in particular like a council that allows them to decide how to spend as much of their income as is possible while fulfilling our role as community leaders. This morning I've been looking at the results of the investment we (and our partners, DC Leisure) are making in our leisure centres, some £6 million in total. Balham Leisure Centre gets some 14,000 visits a week, the Lido about 10,000 a week in the summer. These are the cultural and leisure facilities which are really well used and which should be our priorities. If we don't manage to establish a new library in the Court House then we would indeed look to sell it to raise funds for reinvestment elsewhere, because in my view there are better ways of using the resources involved. The offer is still open for anyone who has other ideas of services to cut or wants to put the mnoney up themselves (putting up business permits wouldn't raise anything, as we reckon they are already at the level past which demand would drop off, leaving us with still more money to find). But as the responsible individuals we councillors have to propose something, and that is what we are doing. If this is indeed an enormously unpopular proposal then we will not be reelected next time round, but in the meantime, after listening to all views, we must act in what we see as the best interests of the community at large. |