The Leader of the Council may give an oral report on matters of significance to the Borough, comment upon the Cabinet decisions or make any announcements.
Minutes:
The Leader of the Council said he had been asked to reflect on the great people who had shaped the borough.
Abraham Darby III, who was an industrial genius, changed the world, but also believed his workers deserved decent homes, food on their table and fair pay.
Captain Matthew Webb remembered not just for being the first person to swim the channel unaided but for risking his life to save others.
Edith Picton-Tuberville, who had fought for women's suffrage and stood for working women in wartime.
William Ambrose Wright, a local lad who became a national sporting hero, the first footballer to get 100 England caps, and who sometimes cycled from Ironbridge to Molyneux to achieve his dream.
Their achievements were remarkable, but what truly inspired us was how they achieved them, with dedication, with hard work, and above all else, with courage. Courage was not just a word from history; it was a quality that had carried this Council through some of the toughest years local government had ever faced.
After 14 years of austerity, it took courage to stay the course, to protect, to care, to invest in the borough’s communities and always putting people first.
Here in Telford and Wrekin, the Council had for more than a decade, the courage to block out the noise and was proposing another positive budget, one that protected, cared and invested while keeping Council Tax amongst the lowest in the country. Looking after those who needed it most was the Council’s priority, and it was also its biggest responsibility.
This budget tonight invested £150m in care, an £18.5m increase on last year, which meant 70 pence in every £1 the Council spent went towards supporting vulnerable children, people with disabilities and older residents.
The Administration was able to do this because there was a government that was listening and after years of being ignored, the Council’s long-standing plea had finally been heard. This settlement delivered an additional £6m for this Council and every penny of this would go directly into protecting the most vulnerable.
Even with this investment, the Council continued to have the lowest Council Tax in the Midlands and amongst the lowest in the country, while other Councils were imposing rises of nearly 9 or 10%.
This increase was equivalent to £1.20 per week for the average household and every penny of that £4.7m went back into care, which meant dignity in old age for residents’ parents, grandparents and loved ones, support for vulnerable children and better outcomes for families, which was something the Council would never apologise for.
Because of strong financial management, the Council was also investing £90m in highways, tackling potholes and improving the roads people relied on every day. The Council was committed to funding better homes, expanded schools, improved bus services and thriving high streets as well as backing the borough’s veterans with real action, which included the purchase of the first ever homes for veterans.
The Council was also extending its £2 bus fares across all routes in the borough as well as delivering more SEND places, 300 more secondary school places and replacing the £250,000 to create safer communities, which had been halted by the Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner.
In addition, more grit bins, a revived amphitheatre, protection of the Priorslee Campus, new nature reserves and more protected green space, £30m for the regeneration of Woodside, Brookside and Sutton Hill, and free green waste collection, free parking where it had always existed, and continued investment in the borough’s high streets.
The Council would extend the current two-year freeze on all Council allowances and would support the Lingen-Davies campaign to bring Telford its first-ever cancer treatment centre with £250,000.
The Leader said tonight’s decision came down to courage - the courage to invest, protect, stand up for its residents, and the courage to back this budget.