Medway Council Leader talks £12 million overspend, Devolution with KCC and the General Election.
24-minute 'The Kent Politics Show' Special airing 23rd January 2024, 7PM.
24-minute 'The Kent Politics Show' Special airing 23rd January 2024, 7PM.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Another huge problem facing Medway Council is this projected overspend of £12m.
00:05 We know the budget is looming in February.
00:08 What are some of those areas we will see cuts in?
00:10 There is no no-go area. We've been looking at every part of the council.
00:14 We either have to spend less, we have to do things more efficiently
00:18 or we have to bring in more income generation.
00:21 You're currently dealing with this overspend,
00:23 so does that mean we might see council tax going up a little bit more?
00:27 We've never said we wouldn't raise council tax.
00:29 The Medway Council tax is the lowest council tax in Kent as we're speaking today
00:34 and we're doing everything we can to try and continue to have that position.
00:37 Because the previous administration here in Medway failed to get to grips with that
00:41 and frankly failed to lobby their own party...
00:43 You often do blame the previous Conservative administration,
00:46 but when are you going to come to the point to take some responsibility
00:49 as you're currently the leader now?
00:50 I'm taking responsibility every single day.
00:53 Free bulky waste and weekly bin collections.
00:55 It's been an issue at the start of January with many residents not having their bins collected,
01:01 so that's a pledge that's already starting to fail a little bit.
01:04 Huge amounts of residents in Medway have gone, "We understand this.
01:07 We understand that sometimes at Christmas in particular there can be a real challenge."
01:12 I want to move on slightly and talk about devolution.
01:15 At the start when this was announced in the middle of last year,
01:18 there was a little bit of friction.
01:19 Roger Gough, the leader at KCC, wanted a directly elected mayor
01:22 and you weren't really seeing eye to eye on that.
01:24 Some would say this is all politics and you could potentially be concerned
01:28 not having the numbers for an elected mayor.
01:30 If you're having devolution, let's get it down to,
01:32 you know, not just myself and Roger as the upper tier authority leaders,
01:37 but actually there are districts and boroughs who play a vital role in our community.
01:40 Is Labour just going to continue to scale back on other pledges then?
01:44 We could have pledged anything and not delivered it.
01:47 That's not our approach.
01:48 We will pledge things we can deliver.