29/01/2012 Sunday Politics South

Good afternoon and welcome to the Sunday politics. Our top story, his

Labour or playing catch up on the Is in the South: Traders protest at

Budget hikes to parking permits. And the only council in our region

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2009 seconds

not to three's council tax next Welcome to Sunday Politics South.

My name's Peter Henley. On today's show: The growing protests in

Brighton and Hove about the Green Party's first ever budget for the

city. These were traders complaining about price hikes for

parking permits. The council's one of the very few in the country

which isn't freezing the council tax next year. We'll have more on

that in a few minutes. But first, let me introduce you to our two

guests who will be with me for the next 20 minutes. Dave Roberts is a

former member of Labour's National Policy Forum and is now working as

a political campaigner and consultant and Caroline Dinenage is

the Conservative MP for Gosport elected in 2010. This week in

Portsmouth there were talks about a review of operations at the docks,

this could be disastrous? 15% of people who live at that particular

site come from my constituency. It would be an massive impact on, not

just the job that the site, but the wider supply chain. They are a

private company but it is not helped by the business agreement

they signed with the Labour Government at the last General

Election. It is very difficult for the Government to interfere.

Clearly they have to make commercial decisions but I will be

lobbying very hard to make sure that those decisions impact on as

few people as possible. The And you have worked with Ed Balls on his

leadership campaign, now Ed Miliband seems to be coming along,

what you think of him as leader? the last recourse so he has made a

very clear statement that the party at this time cannot make promises

about what the economy might look like after 2015. It is the sensible

thing to do, not to make promises which you might have to break.

Caroline criticises some of the deals that were signed, he has

still got to address that, hasn't he? There was a huge global

downturn, I don't think we can be ashamed about that. He managed that

and we said at the last election that we would be making cuts to

reduce the deficit. We said we would half the deficit by 2015 but

the Conservatives and Lib Dems have gone too far too fast and they are

harming the British economy. They are not doing anything

inspirational about growing our economy. Every single person who is

unemployed is a loss to our society. It is a painful and nasty personal

experience. When they talk about cutting jobs and cutting spending,

these are people's lives being put at stake. Any job that is lost is a

huge tragedy for the family involved but I think the Labour

Party have made it clear they would like to say -- C budget cuts but

they have not said where they would make them. The Labour Party have

always voted against cuts. You would like to see where they would

get the money from. Nobody wants to see cuts impact badly on people's

lives. I think we have made it clear that when we come to 2015 we

will assess the situation and come to the British people with an

offering of what we would do given the circumstances at that time. We

cannot predict what that is going to be. At the moment we are heading

in the wrong direction. The economy is shrinking rather than growing.

We are urging the Government to think again and start listening to

what people are seeing. We must make sure people are employed and

not unemployed. It is that time again when councils start

announcing what their budgets will be for the next financial year. The

Government is offering extra funding to authorities which freeze

their council tax but Brighton and Hove have decided to raise theirs

by 3.5 %. That has encountered some opposition. This has upset everyone

from musicians to book clubbers, motorists to musicians. I spent the

morning with Anne and who runs a small plumbing and maintenance

company. He was incensed when the green's budget included a raised in

parking permits which are essential for his work. These proposals are

not business friendly. They do not seem to understand the pressures of

the local economy at the moment. formed a protest group and got

thousands of businesses to lobby Council. This has prompted a

reduction in the proposed increase. The Greens say this means traders

will pay less than �1 per day extra. This man says it is not that simple.

With a business such as his with several vehicles it would cost an

extra �2,500 per year. He only has a 10% profit margin so to earn that

extra money he would need an extra �25,000 per year of work. If they

believe strongly in not putting their prices up people would put

more free time into their businesses which would put a burden

on themselves. Eventually they will give up or move away from Brighton

to look at the areas where they can operate profitably. Other groups

have also been making themselves heard. There were plans to cut the

children's music services but these later the greens announced that

those cuts would be spared. There when also plans to close toilets in

public parks which were revised. People in Brighton and Hove will

have to pay more because the of authority is one of very that you

Nationwide to raise the council tax. They say a three's would mean even

deeper cuts. Do people mind paying more? -- freeze. You do not get

anything more or for it. It just goes up and up each year. I do not

mind if we get better services but I am probably in the minority.

Tories busy public opinion has turned against the greens.

expected to gain in a by-election and the came third. One of the

points on the doorstep was the fact that the public did not agreed with

a council tax increase. -- agree. It seemed unreasonable. It seems

there could be a further wave of protests before the council budget

is finally set on 23rd February. Joining me now is the cabinet

member responsible for the Budget. This first historic Green Budget

from the green controlled council. How did you come up with the figure

of 3.5 %? We look at the reduction in our core funding from the

Government and the services that people in our area it neat and it

came clear that we had a very narrow window which we could look

at. We did not have a choice and any talk of referendum is uncertain

because the electoral commission say proper regulations are not in

place. We have looked at securing his services for the vulnerable,

the elderly and children in this city. Labour who support except in

no change would need to tell people how they would pay for it. It is a

one-off piece of money which Eric Pickles admitted is to reduce the

tax base for councils. There are now 17 local authorities who have

followed our lead in rejecting this grant which is a gimmick. The grant

is only worth �3 million and over two years we would be �5.4 million

worse off if we took it. You said you had a public consultation and

yet you are trying to avoid the referendum. A referendum is not an

option at the moment because the electoral commission would not

allow it. The costs involved in running it might be an option in

the coming years but at the moment our funding is being reduced.

Budgets are being squeezed all over the place and it is very well for

the opposition to see do not do this and do not do that but they

cannot explain how they would pay for it. It is the people who are

shouting loudest whose issues are being addressed whereas to business

you have just said sorry, you have to pay more for your parking.

have had a dialogue. You have rolled over to those who have

shouted loudest. I would not say that is the case. We have been able

to make some changes to ballot concerns. There were a central

funding cuts to music and arts and we have been able to protect them

by modifying proposals. If you look at the parking charges, everyone on

the waiting list currently has to pay and display or queue for a

daily permit which is costing more than �4 per day. By our proposals

we have eliminated that waiting list so all of those traders will

be able to park for less than two pints per day. The traders I have

spoken to are delighted that the waiting list is being eliminated

and they can work in the city. are speaking to traders who are

being delighted but the man we spoke to said you have written off

more than you can chew. -- bitten off more than you can chew. What

you have done here by trying to three's council tax as well as

cutting the central Government grant is really a double whammy for

councils, it is very tough for them? This is a situation that

every family in the country is facing, they have to tighten their

belts. Every council is facing a situation where they have to do

things in the most economically sensible way possible. The Green

Party have wanted for years to be able to do this and now that they

have to put their money where their mouth is are now having to make

difficult decisions. There was someone in the report saying she

would like to pay for better services, why should she not be

allowed do? I think Brighton are trying to save money at the expense

of the people who should be growing the way out of the recession, the

traders, those who generate money for the economy, those are not

people who should be penalised and this time. The traders are

benefiting from this because those on the waiting list will now pay

less for their parking. We are also allowing people to pay quarterly

which improves their cashflow situation. The grant that is being

offered is not free money. It would undermine our tax base. People

depend on our services for social care, education, that is what we

are trying to protect. These are massive cuts over many years until

20 team we are now hearing from George Osborne. There will be

yearly reductions in power funding. You are shaking your head but

wouldn't you secretly like to be standing up and saying this is

wrong, we want to spend money on services? People do want to spend

money on services and as we saw in the club people will pay money for

improved services. I see no evidence that paying more council

tax, paying more to park your car and more for you or allotment

coming from a Green Party in power is going to deliver improved

services. They are actually reducing some of their kerbside

recycling. Can you respond on be recycling and the trial of food

waste collection? We have not selected the location for the trial

yet. We will be selecting the location later on but we will be

trial in communal recycling, food waste collection. At a cost of half

a million pounds? That was an early estimate but we will be revising

that based on funding from the EU and the been fund. What about the

price of allotments? We are trying to protect those, at the moment we

have a subsidy but given the cuts we will not be able to maintain

that so we are trying to make allotments self sufficient in the

long term. We are actually saving �35 million in this to your budget

from the council. We are trying to find efficiencies. We have done

very well given the underspend in the current year. The other parties

can criticise all they want but how would the balance the budget?

our regular round-up of the political week in the South

compressed into just 60 seconds. David Willetts started the week

rummaging in the undergrowth. He was checking out by technology at

Reading University. Super plants to feed the Third World. This will be

the next green revolution. It was all about the environment as the

courts ruled cuts in solar power subsidy were unlawful. And there

was plenty of wind power in Weymouth Bay as Richard Bennion

opened the first section of coastal path taking forward plans for

public ownership. It should be a great view for an Olympic sailing

but just along the coast guest houses are complaining that regular

customers are being put off the king. People may perhaps want to

come for up to three nights, perhaps it is a different market.

We packed a lot in. Dave Roberts is a secret show jumper, not a lot of

people know that. But not quite Olympic standard? Not quite Olympic

standard. And Caroline, your sport is football, Portsmouth is in real

trouble, isn't it? It's not good. Do you think a community buy-out is

the answer? A at the moment the situation is so sensitive that we

do not how it will -- know how it will pan out. We do know the way it

can list an entire city when we go through promotion to the

Premiership. It lifts the general City spinet. To be in this

situation again is not a nice place to be. I think it is a great

sadness when football clubs find themselves in these situations. It

does seem to be rich men playing games with people's sporting

allegiances. It all gets horribly messy and I hope this is not going