City council pledges more cash for youth projects (From Oxford Mail)

City council pledges more cash for youth projects

11:00am Wednesday 22nd February 2012 in Oxford By Laura Jones

Ed Turner

THE city council pledged extra cash to youth and education projects as it passed its £24m budget.

Oxford’s Labour-run city council also earmarked cash for advice centres and services to support people battling benefit cuts as its proposed budget was passed.

At a full council meeting on Monday night the ruling party used its majority to vote through the 2012/13 budget, which will also see its share of council tax remain unchanged next year.

An average band D property will continue paying £262.96 a year. But there was no lastminute promise of support for the already over-subscribed dial-a-ride service despite attempts by the Liberal Democrats to win funding for it.

And the Green party’s proposal to abandon the £16m project to build a new swimming pool in Blackbird Leys and renovate Temple Cowley Pools instead was also swept aside as the Labour budget was rubber stamped.

In a political attack on the Conservative-run Oxfordshire County Council, Labour’s deputy leader Ed Turner said the budget was driven by the need to plug gaps in the authority’s spending on youth and employment.

Mr Turner said: “Some will say we should not get involved, because this is the county council’s problem.

“It is certainly in large part the county council’s responsibility. However, this is not just the county council’s problem, it’s our city’s problem. We hear all too often of young people from Oxford not getting the opportunities they need here because their skills and qualifications are inadequate.

“This simply has to change and with the most ambitious programme to raise educational attainment of any district council in the country we will do what we can.”

His argument was attacked by Lib Dem Cllr Mark Mills, who claimed the council should make the same intervention to save the dial-a-ride service from cuts.

Mr Turner said it was a service that was the ultimate responsibility of Oxfordshire County Council and if the city council was to supplement funding it would encourage Conservative-run County Hall to cut funding further.

Accusing the deputy Labour leader of playing politics with a lifeline service for the elderly and disabled, Mr Mills said: “I’m uncomfortable with using services for disabled people as a way of communicating how we feel to the county council about cuts.”

The budget for 2011/12 was £25.7m. Mr Turner said in 2012/13 the service budget would be £23.8m and by 2015 it would be £19.6m due to cuts in Government funding.

The budget included:

• £350,000 to fund under-achieving children and classroom support in Oxford schools
• £240,000 to be invested in youth activities and to create jobs for youth workers who lost their jobs in cuts made by other authorities
• £25,000 to pay for free swimming for young people
• £310,000 over four years to create more cycle lanes and better signs for cyclists
• £9,000 to pay a living wage of £8 an hour to Oxford City Council employees
• £58,000 over two years to fund welfare advice following Government cuts to legal aid
• £100,000 over two years to pay for five new apprenticeships at Oxford City Council
• £4,000 to set up an annual cricket festival in Cowley Marsh Park
• £420,000 capital funding over three years to pay for toilet improvements in and around the city