Thame’s Day Centre and Children’s Centre saved – for now!

FOLLOWING an adjournment and re-negotiations between councillors, Oxfordshire County Council voted this afternoon to accept an amended budget that will mean financial support for Day Centres for the elderly and Children’s centres, including Thame’s Red Kite Children’s Centre, will not be cut – at least for another year.

Image courtesy of BBC Oxford.

Many speakers, including a 13 year-old boy, and Thame Town Cllr Mary Stiles, spoke passionately to the council about the affect controversial cuts amounting to millions of pounds, would have on those affected.

Cllr Stiles spoke particularly about the proposed removal of bus subsidies for some rural routes and presented a petition containing 261 signatures, and about cuts to children’s centres and day centres.  She told councillors: “The cuts proposed, will hurt some of the most vulnerable people in our county.”

Apparently, during negotiations in the adjournment, the two things that Labour councillors proposed, but Tories rejected, were decreasing councillor’s allowances, and increasing council tax only for the higher bands – which has been done elsewhere nationally.

The Lib Dems and some independents supported the amended budget, but the Greens voted against it. They had proposed an alternative budget, which would have meant having a referendum to put council tax up to 7%.

The alternative budget agreed today will now mean that down the road, the council has £15 million of extra savings to find over the next four years, instead of the previous figure of £11 million.

There was no money for bus subsidies however in the revised budget, but the county council has not yet decided what to do with the additional £4.5 million ‘transitions fund‘ from the government over the next two years, so some of it could yet be used to run some reduced bus services.

Full details of the new budget will emerge in the coming days and weeks.

In a tweet after the meeting, Council Leader Ian Hudspeth, said: “Delighted to propose an amended County budget with support from @OxLabourCllrs & @OxonCCLibDems to provide a stable financial platform.”