SCC Executive Praise efficiency drive and condemn the Government 24th January

SCC’s Executive last week heard how the Council’s BDR efficiency drive had received praise from the Government’s efficiency expert Sir Peter Gershon, and saved £41.5m in 2006/07, helping Surrey to cope with the effects of Labour’s politically motivated under-funding of services in Surrey.

Leader of the Council Nick Skellett remarked “we set ourselves a challenging target, and we managed to save £41.5m whilst preserving most services and improving others. Our officers deserve great credit for this, and they have worked very hard to ensure that the people of Surrey continue to receive the quality of services that they expect and deserve. We are continuing to look at ways of saving money whilst preserving services, but we are not being helped by either the Labour Government or the Lib-Dem opposition at County Hall.

“Labour are under-funding Surrey, where there are few Labour councillors and no Labour MPs, in order to fund their friends elsewhere in the country, without realising that the good people of Surrey see this for what it is: the most blatant example of the Labour government abusing its powers for the party-political purposes.

“Surrey’s residents understand that whilst Conservatives in Surrey are doing our best for Surrey, Labour aren’t”.

Geoff Marlow (Executive Member for Resources) added “whilst the Labour Government at Westminster punish Surrey for not voting Labour, the Lib-Dems in Surrey refuse to face up to reality.

When confronted with a shortfall in government funding for Surrey’s residents and services they chose to oppose the BDR without proposing a realistic alternative. If the Lib-Dems had been in charge I dread to think of the mess we would be in.

It just goes to show that whereas Surrey’s Conservative Councillors will work hard and take tough decisions to protect services whilst delivering savings, the Lib-Dems will bury their heads in the sand and duck the difficult decisions”.