Be more ambitious with investment for future

It’s time for Dorset Council to become more ambitious in terms of what it delivers and the revenue it raises. As Clare Sutton, the leader of the Green Party group of councillors on the council, pointed out in her recent budget speech, when the council was formed in 2019 councillors were told that its immediate ambition was to be ‘safe and legal’. “That limited ambition”, she said, “seemed reasonable in those early days.”

Taking into account a range of budgetary pressures, particularly in Adult Social Care and the inflation crisis, this year’s planned increase in gross expenditure of 8.5% represents another safe and legal budget – a budget that enables us to

By KELVIN CLAYTON West Dorset Green Party

simply carry on doing what we’ve done this past year, with no cuts to essential or frontline services, and to develop a contingency fund that mitigates the risk of inflation. However, whilst the Green councillors on Dorset Council supported this ‘safe and legal budget’ we are quickly coming to the opinion that such a budget reflects a lack of ambition. In particular there are three areas, in addition to the continued development of our Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy, where we think the council should seriously consider developing the service it provides to the residents of Dorset, three areas where we believe it should start to become much more ambitious indeed. One area is housing. As I argued in my previous column, there is a growing recognition across the political spectrum that we need to do much more to support the housing needs of our young people and essential workers. The council needs to seriously consider building and managing its own housing stock. Second, we need to reverse the ongoing decline of public transport, especially in rural areas. We need to improve the mobility of our young people, if for no other reason than to increase their range of post16 education and training options; we need to support our hard-up families and elderly residents with their travel needs; and we need to make it easier for us all to leave our cars at home. Third, we should start to become much more ambitious in the support we give to our struggling youth clubs. Until the old Dorset County Council decided to stop funding them, these clubs were part of our core service. Whist Dorset Council does have a Youth Fund to provide limited support, it is nowhere near enough, and has this year’s freezing of the fund at £100k represents a net cut in support. We need to start rebuilding our youth services. We need to invest in our young people – they are our future.