It has become my custom over the last few years to publish my speech on the Council budget. I am not sure that there is much interest in it, but just for the record, here is this years... We can certainly tell that there is an election ten weeks tomorrow. A few red herrings have been published early in the year, so that savings can be found at the last minute. Deals done behind closed doors are being used to asset strip the Vale in order for the Lib Dems to stumble through another election. Just under a year ago Nick Clegg claimed that the planned council tax freeze was part of a “black hole” in the Conservative’s plans. This comment is still on the Lib Dem website today – although interestingly when I clicked on “What we stand for” nothing came up, but perhaps that was just my computer. At the time the Lib Dems were keen to distance themselves from the Tory proposal of freezing council tax. I am glad to say that Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems have seen sense. Tonight we hear Lib Dems claiming credit for freezing council tax. In actual fact it is of course, only an extra grant of more than one hundred and forty thousand pounds (£140,000) from the Government that has made this possible. The delivery of a Conservative general election pledge, and one that we on this side are rightly proud of. It is in fact, only through the mechanism of the council tax freeze that the Conservative’s have managed to block further rises by this Lib Dem administration. Previous to the delivery of this Conservative council tax freeze, the Lib Dems had planned to increased tax by three point nine percent (3.9%) - above even the latest CPI inflation figures. We are witnessing the Vale fire sale. More than 70% of the proposed capital schemes for this year are effectively the capitalisation of revenue costs by handing over assets such as the Guildhall, Manor Road recreation ground to Town Councils, and we can only presume in due course Wantage Civic Hall will be next. Cllr Webber seems rather confused about his principles. He stated that he objected in principle to planning being subsidised by the tax payer when it is only used by a small number of people. Then he congratulates himself for saving the pitch and putt which is “appreciated by the few people who use it”. Youth services, public toilets, environmental schemes and pest control are all to be cut, as well as the stealth tax of increased fees and charges. Planning charges are going up significantly, and there is a further increase in the cost of brown bins. Incidentally the proposal to increase charges for brown bins will raise only twenty-eight thousand pounds (£28,000), only just over half of the forty thousand pounds (£40,000) that went uncollected because Executive members failed to get to grips with the services they were supposed to be providing. I welcome the efficiency savings that have been driven by officers, but they come too late, contrary to what we have heard earlier this evening, after years of prevaricating by a political group that has failed to take the difficult decisions early enough, and has waited until they are forced into making rushed decisions instead. The lack of vision on the part of the Lib Dems is marked. The only strategy seems to be one of survival. The budget we have been presented with tonight, is all to do with the election, and very little to do with the good administration of the Vale. Past failings and financial mismanagement are coming back to haunt them, and I urge all members to vote against this budget.