Lib Dem vision: tea parties and social care help (From Banbury Cake)
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Lib Dem vision: tea parties and social care help
9:30am Tuesday 19th February 2013 in News
MONEY for tea parties, concessionary bus travel for young people and cash for occupational therapists have been proposed by Lib Dems on Oxfordshire County Council.
The opposition has tabled its own alternative budget ahead of a full council meeting at County Hall today.
They want to pump funding into the children, education and families budget, and invest an extra £2.3m in adult social care. The plan also scraps the rises in day centre charges proposed by the ruling Tory administration.
Among plans is spending £50,000 for an initiative to encourage people to provide tea parties for elderly people.
To pay for the spending, they propose slashing marketing costs, sharing management and using more than £1.8m from reserves. Lib Dem group leader Zoe Patrick said: “We are keen to lessen the impact of cuts in the four areas people say matter most. We offer a real alternative to the Conservative administration and hope they listen.”
The Greens’ alternative budget includes a referendum on a 3.75 per cent rise in council tax to avoid savings in adult social care.
Labour has tabled an amendment asking the council to write to Whitehall and Oxfordshire MPs to state that the Government has mismanaged the economy.
The meeting, where the budget and savings of £46m are expected to be approved, will begin at 10am.
