Wandsworth Conservatives

You will have heard it before. Ken Livingstone and the Labour administration in London’s City Hall cost Londoners dearly. If you live in Merton, a quarter of your Council Tax goes to this Labour Mayor; if you live in Wandsworth, almost a half of your Council Tax goes to the Labour Mayor. Since Mayor Livingstone entered City Hall in 2000. he has increased the Council Tax by an extraordinary 153 per cent, while national inflation has yearly been  in low single figures.

This year, an election year, he has come up with a lower demand on our pockets, and his PR spin is that it will pay for more police officers. However, City Hall Conservatives have produced a ZERO increase which would deliver the same, or better protection.

The Conservative Group on the London Assembly has proposed “a budget for law and order”.  This includes an extra 500 warranted police officers on the beat to combat crime and gang warfare. This could be managed by diverting money from bureaucracy to front line services.  There would be no increase in the GLA part of Londoners’ council tax bills.

Conservative proposals are in stark contrast to those being put forward by Ken Livingstone.  

Our no-increase budget recognises the concerns Londoners have for rising violent crime.   In addition to the extra 500 warranted police officers we are also proposing 650 extra transport police, more safer neighbourhood teams, and increased use of CCTV.  In essence, we want less spin and more action in the fight against crime in London – and we demonstrate that this can be achieved without an automatic increase in the GLA tax.

That’s true Value for Money - and Boris Johnson and the rest of us are pledged to provide just that.

UPDATE 22nd February

Wandsworth Council has just announced a ZERO increase in the borough Council Tax for 2008/9. Unfortunately, taxpayers will however find their overall tax increasing - wholly because of the extra charge imposed by Mayor Livingstone. If only he could manage with the same skill and care for Londoners as Conservatives do.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 4th, 2008 at 10:43 pm and is filed under Crime, Livingstone, Richard Tracey, London Assembly. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.