‘We are at the rock-face with nowhere else to go’ council facing finance pressures appeal to opposition groups
But at the meeting at Shirehall on September 11, a challenge from Conservative finance portfolio holder Councillor Gwilym Butler to work together on a collaborative budget for the next financial year were met with a guarded response from leaders of the main opposition groups. “It is under consideration. We want to join, but given the history of the last 15 years of only being told certain things when we have to be told, and only being told when the public are told, some wonder whether that is going to really change and that’s a discussion that is ongoing,” he told the meeting.
Green group leader Councillor Julian Dean said the Greens would continue to work constructively with the administration on the council’s budget, and drew their attention to previous Green proposals on waste minimisation and carbon savings which have now been adapted as cost savings within the budget.