Conservatives come out on top in City Budget negotiations

Saltdean Lido
  • Conservatives secure more money for priorities than other parties in a win for the community
  • Outcome a result of hard work and clear vision for the city
  • Measures will mean work can start immediately restoring heritage, turbocharging tourism and improving the state of the City

 

The Conservative Team has come out on top in negotiations between parties during tonight’s City budget, winning a £7million boost for their priorities to activate the City’s heritage and tourism and improve the state of the city.

 

After days of meetings, Conservative came out on top in negotiations, securing £7m for their priorities to activate heritage and boost tourism; and improve the state of the City.

 

  • Greens - £476,500
  • Labour - £447,000
  • Conservatives - £7.177 million

 

This means the following Conservative priorities will be funded:

 

  • Disability beach access ramp for the eastern seafront - £30,000

 

  • Upgrade and refurbishment of seafront shelters - £80,000

 

  • Capital investment for seafront railings refurbishment or replacement and Beach Hut infrastructure and replacement - £250,000

 

  • Disabled access carriage for the Volks Railway - provide £100,000 capital investment to support towards the purchase to be match funded from grant applications and alternative funding streams with £6,000 recurrent funding for the financing costs

 

  • Saltdean Lido renovation - £1.135m with £40,000 recurrent funding for the financing costs

 

  • Madeira Terraces Restoration - £4.535m

 

    • Provide a further £1.135m capital resources to fund future phases of the Madeira Terraces project incorporating the ambition to deliver a carbon neutral or low carbon refurbishment. This will require £40,000 recurrent funding for the financing costs.

 

    • To take advantage of the lower interest rates available to the council and utilise the £200,000 recurrent funding set aside to finance borrowing to support the Madeira Terrace in 2021/22, increasing the borrowing from £4.3m to £5.6m.

 

    • Capitalise the £74,000 recurrent funding for the Madeira Terrace Project Manager post included in the Corporate Plan Investment Table 2 on page 33 of the agenda, instead utilising the capital resources already identified for Madeira Terrace, and use the £0.074m recurrent funding to support a further £2.1m capital investment for the Madeira Terrace project.

 

  • Tree planting around phone masts; replacement play equipment in Patcham parks; resurfacing of Knoll Park multipurpose play area; £20,000 replacement of the zip wire at Saltdean Oval Park and additional pothole repair funding - £70,000.

 

  • Open space sports infrastructure such as tennis court nets and basketball hoops. The open spaces to include Hangleton and Hove Park - £10,000

 

  • Replacement bins in open spaces including Hove Park, Hove Recreation ground, Greenleas Park and Knoll Park - £10,000

 

  • Reversing Schools Standards and Achievements Cuts - £75,000 funding to remove, for a period of 3 years, the £25,000 savings proposals in the Schools Standards and Achievements service as shown on page 85 of the agenda to support post Covid recovery and attainment in schools;

 

  • 4 new mobile CCTV cameras - provide £50,000 capital investment in 4 mobile cameras for the prevention of fly tipping. This will require £11,000 recurrent funding to support financing costs which will be met from the fine income these additional cameras generate.

 

  • Feasibility study for new beach huts in the eastern seafront, including Saltdean, Rottingdean and Ovingdean - £10,000

 

  • Support for Domestic Violence charity RISE - £15,000 for RISE after they lost the contract following a Labour Administration debacle.

 

  • New Conservative commitment to the Climate Assembly Fund of £104,000

 

  • Reverse the Council's proposed cuts to the Adoption Allowances for families with adopted children for 3 years as shown on page 87 of the agenda, and therefore allow inflationary increases - £30,000

 

 

Conservative Finance Spokesperson Joe Miller said that the result was testament to the hard work and positive ideas put forward by the Conservative Group.

 

“Our Conservative Team has been clear with what we wanted to achieve from this budget with our twin focus on activating heritage and boosting tourism for a post-covid recovery and improving the state of the city.

 

“We are also delighted this composite amendment has gone some way to reverse the Labour and Greens’ vote against more funding for the Climate Assembly fund investment fund at Policy & Resource Committee and that we could suggest and deliver an additional £104,000 for the climate assembly in our city”.

 

“Through our hard work, identifying savings, we have managed to secure £7 million of measures to benefit the City.

 

“This is a demonstration of our values and an example of what our Conservative team can accomplish for this City if elected at the next election.

 

“This is what we have delivered from opposition.  Imagine what we could do in administration to rebuild our forgotten heritage, to turbocharge tourism and to bolster businesses, and to protect and support the most vulnerable and disadvantaged whilst investing in climate change at the same time: which will lead to a fairer and larger bounce back of growth, which our resident’s need and our city deserves after the most hellish year due to covid of many people’s lives” Cllr Miller added.

 

 

ENDS.