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Comment

Steve Foulkes

"LABOUR is passionate about positive politics. We're not here to posture and make grand statements. We're here to make a real difference, and we're here for the long haul. But we're not going to do it at your expense.

This year Labour has again delivered a council tax lower than the national average and driven Wirral's position still further down the council tax league.

A few years ago there were only three councils with higher council tax levels than Wirral. Today, following a series of Labour budgets, there are now 241 councils who charge more than Wirral and this year's budget saw us drop a further sixteen places in the council tax league!

Dedication, hard work and rigorous scrutiny of the council's finances on a daily basis is Labour's recipe for success. We don't axe front line services (much to the Conservatives' dismay).

But we don't delay taking important decisions, even if they may not be popular. We invest in the future and in new ways of working so costs continue to come down. It's not exciting. It's not headline grabbing.

But it does allow us to double the council tax discounts for the over 75s this year, provide free swimming for young people and pensioners, deliver improvements in our public spaces, tackle dog fouling, tackle climate change by reducing our carbon footprint and give ordinary people much more say on the services they want where they live, amongst many other improvements.

And we demand that dedication from our councillors and activists.

Pat Hackett with the Floral Pavilion scheme in New Brighton, Don Prout who pioneered the transfer of housing stock in Leasowe with dramatic improvements and who oversaw the creation of the Millennium Centre, Sue Brown with a brand new school in Upton, Sue Percy helping deliver conservation status in Bebington, Dave Hawkins working to bring £820,000 of lottery money into Liscard - all positive people with positive politics for Wirral.

There are billions of pounds worth of investment in Wirral in the pipeline now, which will benefit our children and our children's children, simply because Wirral is now seen as a safe and attractive place to invest.

Let's keep it that way."

By Steve Foulkes, Labour group leader

4:38pm Tuesday 22nd April 2008

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