Budget boost for Headington & Marston area "just the start"

6.44.17pm GMT Tue 1st Mar 2005

Cllrs Stephen Tall & David Rundle: lowering the Bury Knowle park wall to help increase visibility and safety is one of the 11 projects funded by the area committee

Cllr Stephen Tall has welcomed the news that the City Council's North East Area Committee last year spent £18,556 supporting 11 local projects, and pledged that a future Lib Dem administration will place area committees at the very heart of the Council's budget decision-making.

"It was Lib Dems who set up the area committees, and we have always championed increasing their powers and budgets," comments Stephen.

"Area committees are in touch with the local residents we represent, many of whom come every month to our public meetings in local schools and community centres. They stand in stark contrast to the anonymous Town Hall council committees where a genuine member of the public is about as likely to be seen as the Queen at a registry office.

"The North East Area Committee is allocated an annual £24,000 from the City Council's budget to spend on projects in the six wards it represents. This isn't as much as I would like it to be - but it's a start. These pots of cash are enabling local groups to obtain vital funding for important work which might otherwise simply not have happened.

"A future Lib Dem council will expand area committee responsibilities, and increase their budgets proportionately. This will ensure that local services are more genuinely responsive to local needs. The area committees' greater transparency will also shine a light on the city's finances, and enable tax-payers to judge for themselves whether they are getting good, value-for-money services."

Summary of revenue expenditure for North-East Area Committee 04-05

Northway street sports site = £385

Barton street sports site = £385

Small Area Survey - Wood Farm = £2,000

Festive lights - Headington = £5,000

Headington car park wall = £2,000

Barton A-Z booklet = £1,500

Sandhills notice board = £1,200

Magdalen Wood Open Day = £1,000

Bury Knowle picnic benches = £1,500

Marston bridlepath resurface = £3,386

Wood Farm Primary School (Philomusica) = c.£200

Total = £18,556

Balance to carry forward = £5,444