Dire council funding situation being lost in "mudslide of misinformation" warning

Southport residents are being subjected to a "mudslide of misinformation" which is in danger of engulfing the political process locally and doesn't acknowledge the truly difficult state of council funding, it's been warned. 

It follows a number of reports in local media and election leaflets which are either "deliberately misleading or completely ignorant" maintains Southport councillor Greg Myers. He explains:

"From false promises by Lib Dem candidates over health services to the Conservatives trying to mislead local residents over the sewage dumping issue or both issuing nonsense over council tax and The Strand - this election is one of the worst I've seen for them trying to hoodwink local residents."

"Critics ignore the truly pitiful amount of money that the council now has at its disposal, which they engineered and I will lead on to, while also pumping out fluff in this election because they have little else to offer." 

"Lib Dem candidates for instance have given the misleading impression in their media that if elected as councillors they will do something directly about GP waiting times - quite simply, it's a nonsense. Local councillors cannot change GP waiting times."

"It's a national problem requiring national solutions, and on that level, I'd say that Labour's plans for reducing the current waiting times, training thousands more GPs and also returning your specific 'family' GP are far more attractive than the Lib Dem plan - and the current Conservative mess."

 

"They have also put out misleading information in Norwood Ward which I represent about traffic changes that's ignorant at best and deliberate scaremongering at worst. I've had residents contacting me worried about the various claims, such as HGVs suddenly trundling down Wennington Road but there are no such plans. I expect it's a similar 'fake-news-if-not-the-same-news' story in other areas." 

"You then have the likes of Sefton Conservative Leader Cllr Prendergast putting out a series of 2 plus 2 equals 22 type press releases - some of the worst being their political game-playing about the situation with Children's Services."

 

"I'd give more credence to their sincerity in this area if they had not for years on end failed to attend Sefton's Corporate Parenting Board - the body which actually oversees how Sefton looks after its kids in care and those who have left it. While Cllr Prendergast himself refused to attend it despite repeated invitations." 

"He now also complains about failures in scrutiny while trying to suggest that's down to Labour but fails to mention that scrutiny is a cross-party, non-party political process and that he sits on the very scrutiny committee covering this area - so he's effectively complaining about himself."  

"He also recently failed to take part in the excellent Local Government Association training that was provided to assist that scrutiny committee. Such actions basically speak far louder than his words I'd say." 

"Another example is his recent agitating regarding the works at Splashworld and Southport Pier. At no point did he acknowledge that the problems at those sites were down to contractor build issues - which began long before Labour had control of the council." 

 

"Much like the devastating cuts that the Conservatives and Lib Dems both imposed which have hugely affected council services - Labour though has been left dealing with the consequences." 

 

"We also have both local Conservatives and Lib Dems criticising the recent council budget and rise in council tax - neither of them though ever put in an alternative budget, something they also keep quiet about."

 

"That's because they both know it's been Conservative government policy for over a decade, with Lib Dem help for five years of it, to massively cut local authority funding and also move as much of central government funding as they can over onto local council tax payers." 

"They have just done it once again, with nearly half of the 5% council tax rise this year being down to the Government's social care precept - it's even listed on the council tax bills and Cllr Prendergast knows that but then tries to suggest it is all down to Labour's big recent investment in children's services."

"That Conservative policy itself is a significant double whammy that leaves residents paying more to get much less - especially as taxes are at a record post-war high under their government." 

"The huge irony is that more often than not, the very people locally who supported and voted for those policies are then the very first to complain about the resulting effects of those policies on services. We see it a lot on local social media. In the case of local Lib Dem and Conservative parties, they also seek to cynically exploit the very problems they've caused." 

"We are in a situation now where the council's budget has been cut so severely that after adult care and children's costs have been met, the council has around just £40m to cover everything from parks to potholes across the whole borough of circa 275,000 residents. It's a pitiful amount. Funnily enough, we don't hear that titbit of information acknowledged by those who made the cuts." 

 "The national Coalition may be long dead but it's alive and well in Sefton Council where they still work hand in glove producing little of any note but misinformation."

"It's a similar story with Sefton's acquisition of The Strand, which was central to plans to regenerate Bootle. Both parties repeatedly attacked the purchase completely ignoring the regeneration aspect and making all sorts of claims of how bad an idea it was." 

"The truth however is that the plan is so essential, far-sighted and sound that even this Conservative government with its preference for funding the likes of Tunbridge Wells over deprived urban areas has just had to accept the strength of Sefton Council's case and back it to the tune of £20m. Why would it do that if local Lib Dem and Conservative claims are true?" 

"The irony of the local coalition being undone by the national Conservative government is one of the few amusing aspects of all this misinformation. Meanwhile, it's impossible to get everything as all residents want in the funding situation we have and that's massively frustrating for Labour councillors but we try to do the best we can with what we've got."  

"I've no problem with differences in political opinion but I'd say all this is going far beyond that - it's a mudslide of misinformation put out without any context and little care for the truth, designed simply to stir up trouble in the run-up to the local elections regardless of the facts. Sadly, some get caught up and swept away with it but it devalues local politics." 

 

"One of the most recent examples is the local Conservative attempted duping about the vote a few days ago when Labour tried to bring in a Bill to stop sewage dumping completely by 2030." 

"The Conservatives, including Southport's MP Damien Moore, voted against that plan and then tried to claim instead that they were the ones looking to make improvements - keeping totally quiet about the fact that the scheme they have proposed won't actually completely halt sewage dumping until 20 years after Labour's plan."

"Quite simply, we need to dump Mr Moore not more sewage, and these local elections are a great way to show the Conservatives that their time is soon up... and locally that their allies the Southport Lib Dem Party can go with them as they are part of the problem, not the solution."