THE Conservatives recognise the emerging need for cuts and deferments of both revenue and capital budget items. The Independent administration inherited an excess of short term borrowing when they took over from Labour, and this would have caused difficulties in balancing future budgets for an incoming administration of any political complexion.

The clear reason for the present crisis is a combination of the profligacy of the previous Labour administration and the subsequent improvidence of the Independents. The emergency decision of the Finance & Corporate Policy Committee in July to suspend uncontracted expenditure had all the hallmarks of the long-discredited national economic policy of "stop-go".

Recent measures seem to have been selected on the basis of ease of implementation, rather than on the basis of minimising the adverse impact of cuts and deferments on the economy and social infrastructure of the district. Such a policy can no longer be justified.

The list of options for action is unbalanced and incomplete - it looks as if some committee chairmen were holding back on putting options forward, perhaps in the interests of "maintaining empires" rather than developing a coherent integrated policy which would balance the interests of all.

Councillors were given no evidence that the authors of the package had set out to minimise any threat to the jobs of council employees, or even that such matters had been considered in the selection of measures for adoption. A good employer would not ignore the impact of its package of measures upon the job security and morale of employees and under Conservatives we would seek to set new standards of care for the city's employees.

Equally, we were given no evidence that the package had set out to reflect the discussions about the future of council services taking place under the "Best Value" umbrella. We should not be sacrificing the vision for tomorrow because it is expedient in the financial crisis of today, and a Conservative administration would have made explicit reference to these.

We do not believe that the measures adopted will be effective in solving cash flow problems and we expect that a new programme of asset sales will have to be announced. The sales of council owned property should be seen to be linked to an "asset management plan", and should not be undertaken on a piecemeal basis. Prudent financial management would avoid situations like those in the past (e.g. as exposed in the Labour administration's 1999 budget) in which asset sales became a necessary part of a solution to a cash flow problem - but we are not confident that the Independents will prevent history from repeating itself.

Cllr Roger Mace

Nether Kellet