Conservatives at the Vale of White Horse District Council have reactedangrily to the latest budget proposals from the Lib Dems. Despite a monthlong consultation in which resulted in pages of negative comments being sentto the Council, the Lib Dem leadership have ignored public concerns and proceeded with savage cuts to front line services. Over the next five years, the Lib Dem are proposing to make cuts of£5.8million from the Council's budget. Vale Conservative Leader, MatthewBarber said, "You simply cannot make cuts on this scale without harmingservices". The consultation process which took place over the Christmas andNew Year was the perfect opportunity for the Lib Dems in Abingdon to pullback from the brink and make a commitment to protect important parts of theCouncil's work such as community grants, the Local Service Points and theCivic Halls. Cllr Barber went on to say, "Everyone has been hit hard by the recession,but the failings at the Vale are due to political mismanagement. At the endof last year the local press reported accounting errors of more than£700,000. In the budget proposals published this week, there are more than£1.5million worth of costs brought about by poor budgeting in previousyears." Despite making huge cuts, the savings are not being passed onto the public.The Lib Dems risk capping by the Government by proposing to increase CouncilTax by an inflation-busting 3.9%. Matthew Barber concluded, "TheConservatives at the Vale are working constructively to find ways ofprotecting our front line services. We can't go on like this!"