A strange idea of consensus

The City Council Budget meeting today could best be described as an example of poor political theatre; no vision from the SnP/Libdem mal-administration and a torrent of personal abuse from those on their benches with nothing helpful to contribute. One wee interesting thing came to light; the SNP/Libdems had had "budget talks" with the Tories and the Greens, but admitted that they decided not to talk to us. Apparently their idea of consensus politics is to only talk with those they agree with....

If they had talked with us they wouldn't have had to push through their cuts; instead they could have done these things;

On Schools - reversed last year’s funding reductions in those budgets giving schools an extra £2.7million; established a ‘£2million revenue’ schools “Energy and Efficiency Fund” for the city – established a ‘£1.2million capital’ school ‘Refurbishment and Upgrade Fund’; to provide funding to undertake the essential works at Wave3 schools; and to establish a new (year 1) £12million ‘capital fund’ with further funds being prioritised in future years to enable development of the remaining Wave3 Schools.
On Economic Development - made an additional investment of some £1.3million in ‘economic development activities’, and established a £5million “Affordable Housing Fund” for the provision of affordable housing across the city.
On Protecting the Vulnerable - invested an additional £2million revenue in ‘Care for the Elderly’ and ‘Respite Care’ services and accommodation services for ‘Young People with Disabilities’; provided an additional £320,000 to towards the provision of 10 new, local Police Officers; and 2 new ‘Care Homes’ for the city.
On Transport -invested an additional £300,000 to protect and enhance all currently ‘supported bus services’ ‘£1.5million capital’ in bus-priority measures and to re-phase all non-essential ‘capital’ roadworks for the duration of the current tram works, prioritising pavement repairs to a ratio of 60%/40% -£8million of capital expenditure in 2009-10 on pavements and £5million of capital expenditure on roads.
On Local Environment - invested £0.6million to provide £50,000 per annum, of new monies, to each of the local Neighbourhood Partnerships. £0.5million per annum to World Heritage Trust to protect the fabric of the city.
On Culture and Leisure - Invested £120,000 towards cultural education and outreach work and to invest ‘£2million capital’ in parks, pitches, pavilions and play areas.