Final checks have now been made on the alternative Lib Dem plans ahead of Thursday’s big budget debate at Walsall Council House.

Last week Liberal Democrats on Walsall Council announced that they were within £100,000 of producing a legal balanced alternative to the Tories Budget proposals for 2016/17. “By Friday we had achieved our aim” said Lib Dem Group Leader Cllr Ian Shires.

The Liberal Democrat’s alternative budget includes plans to save all seven of the libraries threatened by the Tories axe. “Through the use of modern technology we plan to place all libraries at the heart of the communities in which they stand” said Cllr Shires.

Lib Dem would shift power to local communities:

Also contained within the Lib Dems plans are proposals to replace Area Partnerships with Area Councils which would act in a similar way to Parish and To
wn Councils but without the added costs involved. By working more closely with our citizens it will be possible to attract grant funding that the council could not attract on its own.

The Tories plan to do away with council committees at a local level all together replacing them with ad hoc meetings called by individual Councillors. “The Tory proposals would be nothing more than talking shops and would place far too much power in the hands of individual councillors” said Ian.

More prominence to the Voluntary Sector:

The Liberal Democrat Budget proposals would give more prominence to the voluntary sector replacing the Council run One Stop Shop with a Voluntary Sector Hub where people would find a range of advice covering all of the complex issues which affect their everyday lives.

Liberal Democrat Leader Cllr Ian Shires said “We know it won’t be easy to get these radical plans through Council at the spacial Budget meeting on Thursday. We know we need others to adopt or back our proposals which is why we have broken ranks ahead of the meeting making public the outlines of our budget proposals. We know that there are others on the Council who are deeply concerned about the  Tory Budget, agreed by their Cabinet last week, and the effect that it will have on the future prosperity of Walsall and many of its most vulnerable citizens.

“By going public we are seeking to find if there is sufficient common ground to replace the hard line Tory Budget plans with a more compassionate model” concluded Cllr Shires.