Council in budget cut U-turn

Money

Rochdale, Heywood, Middleton and Pennines Townships have had £400,000 of capital funds handed back over after a controversial budget-cut caused outrage among the council.

It was first proposed that the money for this years budget should be devolved in an attempt to “balance the books” during the economic downturn.

Additionally, £620,000 is hanging in the balance from last year, meaning the townships would not simply be without capital funding.

But following an angry outburst from the townships, it has been decided to reinstate the full £400,000 of capital allocation, which will go towards large projects such as regeneration and transport.

Portfolio holder for finance, Councillor Greg Couzens, told Rochdale Online that the proposed decision was only an act of caution. He said: “As I mentioned at the full Council meeting, there is still £620,000 which has not been delivered from last year, and with us also dealing with the credit crunch, I wanted to devolve capital allocation for all Townships to help balance the books. It was not a cost cutting exercise as was mentioned in the media”.

He added: “I met with the chairperson from each Township to listen to their concerns and having debated the issue at length, we are to reinstate the full £400,000”.

Councillor Couzens continued: “Today we have officially hit a recession, there is no way of being certain how long this will last. It could even fall into a depression, which will take even longer to recover”.

Rochdale's Labour Parliamentary Candidate Simon Danczuk was trying to cover for previous mistakes by giving the money back to the Townships.

“This is a prime example of how the Council are totally out of touch with the current economic climate and they are trying to spin their way out of another mess," he said. 

"This is not new money; this is money the Lib Dems took away. Instead of being able to bring in new initiatives to support the economy they’re having to unpick their mistakes. They’re constantly on the backfoot and this shows weak leadership.”