VIEWPOINT - MILES PARKINSON - JULY 2015

George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, recently announced further reductions in public expenditure. Whilst the full detail of these reductions won’t be available until Autumn everyone anticipates more cuts in the money available to local government, after we have already seen the amount of Government Grant for services reduced locally, from over £10.2m to around £6.8m between 2010/11 and 2015/16, the current financial year.

After suffering a reduction of over a third in our finances, looking forward at the level of further reductions which will emerge over the coming months, as the detail on the impact on each local Council is announced; I expect the pressure to mount considerably from what we had previously envisaged. The Council has made huge efforts over the last 5 years to protect local tax payers and services from the impact of these cuts. However, with the election of a new government committed to further reductions in public spending, the Council faces even tougher choices going forward.

As a direct result of the Chancellor’s announcement, I have asked Council Officers to start to examine a whole range of services provided by the Council, where we would need to either reduce, or end subsidies on prices and make the Council’s charges more commercial, to help offset the amounts of money the Government is withdrawing from the Council. In the current environment we face a very stark choice of asking local people to pay more for some services, or having to reduce or end services that we no longer simply have the funds to continue to support. We will continue with our commitment to not increasing Council Tax during this period, but if the Government is withdrawing large amounts of money it pays to fund local services, raising extra funds from services we provide is one way of ensuring we can continue to deliver the vital services our community needs here in Hyndburn.

Despite the challenges facing the Council there are still many reasons to be positive. In Accrington the new Bus Station will soon be complete, meaning work can start on transforming the site of the existing bus station.
Following the completion of the state-of-the-art refurbishment of the Town Hall Ballroom, the next phase of improvement works is now well underway, creating a first class venue which can cater for a wide variety of events.

At the Haworth Art Gallery, as well as the fabulous exhibition and gallery shop, you can now dine in style at the newly opened Gallery Kitchen. The Gallery is a great place to visit any time of year which I highly recommend.

An outline planning application for land at the side of Junction 6 of the M65 proposes to create around 2,000 jobs.

Regeneration work continues with Keepmoat building new homes along Blackburn Rd and Placefirst bringing approximately 130 empty homes back into use in Woodnook.

I will ensure the Council works hard to deliver efficiencies in the way we do things, deliver transformational change across the borough and protect the services you have told me are important to you.