The Green, Liberal Democrat and Independent group, who form the official opposition at Suffolk County Council, expressed their disappointment today that their 2024-25 budget amendment was voted down at the council’s budget meeting.
The group suggested minor changes to the budget, including providing some core funding to arts and museums, as the Covid monies earmarked for this in 2024-25 are not core council funding. This is important because arts and museums are far less likely to succeed in bids for other funding if they do not receive core funding from their local authority. This amendment means they are able to confidently answer yes.
The group also proposed using some of the remaining Covid monies to support young people not in education, employment and training (NEET). The Conservatives’ plan was to redesign the council’s skills team so that service would only monitor the numbers of NEET young people, not provide any support for them to help them find a job or apprenticeship. The council’s notes on these cuts admit that this will likely cause an increase in NEET young people in the county.
Finally, the group proposed that plans to move local archives to the Hold in Ipswich should be postponed until discussions with the relevant authorities, and the views of local people taken on board.
Annette Dunning, GLI Group Spokesperson for Economy and Property, said:
“Our young people currently looking for work, apprenticeships and further education placements are the ones who suffered a great deal of upheaval to their education during the Covid pandemic, so it would have been fitting if the council could have used some of the government’s Covid funding to support them to find their way in life. I’m sure the people of Suffolk will be unsurprised to hear that the number of young people with special educational needs who are also not in education, employment or training is far higher in Suffolk than the east of England and nationally. This was picked up on in the recent inspection report as a priority action for the council and we are concerned that they have rejected this out of hand.
Council core funding is incredibly important to our arts organisations and museums – they need to be able to say confidently that they are receiving it in order to secure other types of financial support. Which ‘pot’ the money comes from is really important in this case.
We are bitterly disappointed that the Conservative administration were not willing to work with us today to make these changes. The people of Suffolk want to see politicians who are working hard to make their lives better, especially now when times are so tough for everyone.
We appreciate the council’s financial situation is serious, which is why we didn’t suggest big changes – the money just isn’t there.
My group has been and will continue to be keen to work together for the people of Suffolk. At the moment it seems like there is a bunker mentality at Suffolk County Council, and people are beginning to notice.”
Suffolk Green, Liberal Democrat and Independent Group 