Lib Dem criticism of £1.2m fund 'galling', says Labour finance chief (From Haringey Independent)

Liberal Democrat criticism of £1.2m One Borough One Future Fund 'galling', says Labour councillor Joe Goldberg

4:53pm Monday 13th February 2012 in News By David Hardiman

The borough’s finance chief has angrily rejected claims that a £1.2million fund set out in the council’s budget is for party political projects.

Councillor Joe Goldberg (Lab), cabinet member for finance, said that the One Borough One Future Fund was “a sum of one-off money which has been created to stimulate social innovation” and “to tackle rising inequality”.

Liberal Democrats, including Hornsey and Wood Green MP Lynne Featherstone, criticised the fund on Friday as a “Labour slush fund” short on detail to be spent on politically motivated projects.

Cllr Goldberg told the Haringey Independent: “How dare Lynne Featherstone and her Lib Dem colleagues criticise our budget, when she has supported the systemic attack on council budgets by central government, particularly in areas with high deprivation like Haringey.

“I will announce further details about the fund shortly, but it will be open to bids not just from council staff, but from across the full spectrum of Haringey's community groups.

“I want the fund to tap into the imagination and ambition we share across Haringey to drive our borough forward and quite frankly their opposition to this is further proof that the Lib Dems have completely lost touch with any values they used to hold dear.”

He added that Ms Featherstone’s backing of the abolition of the Education Maintenance Allowance, cutting of tax credits and support of the current controversial NHS proposals meant her criticism was “particularly galling”.

The council’s cabinet agreed the budget for the next financial year on Tuesday, including investments such as a one-off £200,000 grant for new benches, fences and bins in the borough’s parks – which were hit by a 50 per cent cut in funding last year – and £2m to help tackle youth unemployment.

But the proposals also include an inflation-busting 7.5 per cent housing rent increase, and Cllr Goldberg warned in October that a raft of cuts totalling £19m – which could mean the closure of two children’s homes and a further 300 job losses – would have to be made after cuts in Government funding.

Ms Featherstone said on Friday that spending £1.2m on the fund while cutting services was “frankly outrageous”.

The council says it has had to cut £84m from a total budget of £273m for the three years from 2011 after massive cuts in central Government funding.

Most of those cuts were made last year when £41m was cut from the budget, closing youth centres, after-school clubs and a youth counselling service.

The full budget proposals will be presented to a meeting of the full council on February 28, where they will be debated by both parties – although it is highly likely they will be rubber-stamped by Labour councillors who hold a majority.