I was at the last full council meeting and saw the Tory budget.  They have slashed funding by 20% to the Citizens Advice Bureau.  This is twice what the CAB groups locally said they could sustain.

This is going to result in cuts in hours and staff right when the CAB is needed most.

And the Tories wanted to pat themselves on the back for this budget?  I found the process sickening, and was pleased that our Lib Dem councillors stood up and fought against this.  Unfortunately the Conservatives held the majority and this savage cut went through.

The Conservatives don’t understand that people need this service now more than ever.  They don’t understand how much this is going to affect people.  On the bottom line it makes little difference to their budget.  Yet they still want to spend £2,000 on limousine hire.  One has to ask what their priorities are?

In East Hampshire, Petersfield and Alton are treated differently from the other towns in the District.

The Council run car parks are free in Horndean, free in Whitehill and Bordon, but we pay in Petersfield.

The Tory run council don’t seem to care about the disparity.

But it gets worse.

The short stay car parks have a minimum stay of 2 hours.  Introduced by the Tories because it encourages people to “stay and shop”  In reality it puts people off, meaning that the limited parking in The Square is packed.  In the Causeway car park (Tesco) it isn’t as bad because you can get a refund on your parking.  The long stay car parks have a minimum stay of an hour….

I don’t think this is fair.

There is nothing wrong with the idea of paying for parking (as long as the charges are fair), however the fact that only residents in Alton and Petersfield pay is wrong.  Either EHDC should introduce parking charges across all of its car parks or should withdraw the parking charges entirely.  Also short stay should be just that.  Not have a minimum charge for a time longer than that for the long stay.

Among the items in the EHDC Budget (another post on this later) one thing struck me. £2000 has been allocated to the leader of the council for “Limousine Hire”. Read the rest of this entry.