Birmingham’s Labour leadership has been accused of a lack of ambition with a budget plan lacking big ideas and optimism.
That was the view of opposition Tories and Lib Dems as they both put forward alternative budgets promising to reinstate free garden and bulky waste collections and invest more in investigation against enforcement against fly-tippers.
The Lib Dems also proposed a £5 million plan to build a temporary accommodation centre for the homeless which would save the council money on its bed and breakfast hotel bills.
But the Labour majority, 79 out of 120 councillors, saw their budget which included a 3.99 per cent council tax rise, comfortably approved.
It means a Band D household faces a £57 a year increase to the city council's element of their bill. Police, fire, parish council and transport authority increases will see the bills even higher.
The debate had an added edge with all council seats up for grabs in the local election on May 3 and bins will be a key issue.
Labour leader Ian Ward highlighted the successes for the city with investment up, the Commonwealth Games coming in 2022, thousands of youth jobs being created and houses being built. He also repeated the policy to maintain weekly bin collections for the next four years. And said they were for the first time scrapping charges for child funerals.
He added that they had also defended social care despite the council being hit with ‘eight years of autserity cuts’ and pointed out that even Tory councils were now collapsing under the cuts.
And attacked the Conservative opposition for running negative election campaign, he dubbed ‘project fear’ and filled with ‘fake news’ about ‘bins and congestion charges’.
Cllr Ward said: “Only Labour has a positive vision for the future of this city and it is only Labour that is standing up for and investing in jobs, inclusive growth and a better future for the people of Birmingham.”
But Conservative leader Robert Alden highlighted the Labour council’s failure to balance its budget in recent years and the bin strike last year.
He said that the new budget lacked ideas as a result. He said: “This tired Labour administration has failed to offer any real change in Birmingham.”
His alternative budget would have seen more investment in bins and recycling - including recycling of coffee cups - and better maternity terms and a two per cent bonus scheme for council staff.
He said the Tories would have frozen the council tax this year.
The Lib Dem leader Jon Hunt also set out a stall on grime describing the Labour budget as ‘feeble’ on bins lacking a big idea to keep the city clean. His plans included outsourcing the binmen.
He accused the Labour budget of being full of ‘financial jiggery pokery’ and added that their alternative was a budget ‘for jobs, for people and for Birmingham’.
