Today’s decision to slash £9.2 million pounds from the Buckinghamshire County Councils budget is a hammer blow for many of our poorest and most vulnerable citizens,the Tories have had the grant from central government reduced by £3 million, but have been running an organisation that has wasted so much of our valuable council tax money that they had to find another £6 million to balance the books this year.Some examples of who will suffer are the reduction of £541,000 in the adult and family wellbeing budget, this will harm support for the elderly and their carers, or the 25% cut £200,000 in support to women suffering domestic violence, or the reduction of £362,000 towards road safety activities.

These cuts will have a massive effect on those most in need, to attack carers, the elderly, women in the greatest need, seemingly without fully understanding the impact is deeply disturbing, now I’m not saying that cuts need to be made, we all know that the country is in straightened times, we have to reduce what we spend, and our reliance on borrowing, but to have these cuts brought in by a party who have been wasting money hand over fist for years is hard to take, who can forget the marvelous travel information center, that looks great but cost £300,00, they now can’t afford to staff it, or the Bourg Bridge and its terribly laid out dangerous junction.

Even the reduction in Road Safety activities (code for speed cameras)  will have an effect, I know that many motorists detest them, I’ve been caught myself, but one of the biggest issues I get as a councilor is about speeding, Aylesbury Town Council do support the reduction of speeding, we even have our own radar kit (if you would like to be involved or suggest locations please e-mail me) that we use with the Bedgrove PCSOs to remind drivers of their responsibility, (No tickets or fines are issued) but this reduction could result in lives being lost.

In the light of these cuts the next question is was there an alternative, well yes-ish,  cuts do need to be made but these are disproportionately targeted, there is nothing in these cuts about altering the way that Bucks CC works, there are still massive problems within Bucks, contracts that have been signed that do not give good value to the tax payer, or the Pathfinder scheme where district councils (Tory controlled) would work with Bucks County Council (Tory controlled) and save money, that scheme died because the Tories couldn’t stand the thought of working together.

So when  you cannot get respite care, or an elderly relative or friend cannot get the help they need, just remember that £300,000 on the Travel Information center, and the wasted millions.

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