Trust RESIDENTS on Finance and Running Your Councils

Posted on by

Where R4U leads councils we have shown ourselves to be good at delivering services and fiscally responsible. Under our leadership the Saffron Walden Town Council has won a string of independent awards including the Second Best Council in Essex. The local Conservatives have a poor record, particularly with OUR money.

Residents for Uttlesford trusted to deliver

R4U has shown it can be TRUSTED with residents’ money and to deliver services efficiently. A number of our councillors come from a strong financial background. We have scrutinised the finances at UDC and held them to account. Where they don’t fix things, we expose them.

Meanwhile on councils where we do lead, we’ve spent wisely. At Saffron Walden Town Council R4U fixed the £1million financial mess left by the Tories; we introduced a 5 year financial plan, replenished the reserves, repaired all the crumbling building, refurbished public gardens and invested in our community. The financial plan was delivered early, and so reduced the Saffron Walden Town Council tax increase in 2019 to half that of the Conservative controlled district or county councils.

Our goal is to lead Uttlesford District Council. If elected to do so, in our manifesto we have pledged to:

  • Running Your Councils & Finance: We will be open, transparent and accountable to you; we will run services efficiently and effectively and be a strong voice for Uttlesford with authorities and on policies that we don’t directly control.

Our detailed policies are:

Conservatives can’t be trusted on finance

Local Conservative council administrations are using our council tax money, but:

  • They wasted £2million of council tax payer money on their 2014 Local Plan that was rejected by the Planning Inspector. So far they’ve spend £5million of our money on the Local Plan and we still don’t have a valid Local Plan.
  • The Conservatives’ property investment arm at UDC has lost £3.3million. They tried to hide the fact from residents until it was exposed.
  • Their departing administration at Saffron Walden Town Council left a £1million financial black hole and crumbling assets that they’d failed to pay to maintain for years.
  • They failed to collect £3million in community infrastructure from developers, robbing residents of new sports pitches, open spaces and community facilities.

And we could go on… (view the links below).

Fact Check the Conservatives

The Conservatives have also been peddling their latest ‘fake facts’ on the doorstep and through the letterbox. They’re clearly trying to rewrite history since they left Saffron Walden in such a financial mess 4 years ago. So here’s a link to our handy Fact Checking the Tories page. It may not be the most exciting thing, but then often telling the truth isn’t.

Related Articles

Below are some of the articles relating to the delivery of council services and the management of tax payer money:

 

Posted in News

About R4U

Residents for Uttlesford is local party for residents by residents, where residents get to decide for themselves.