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Camden New Journal - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 19 July 2007

Muddled on finances

• JOHN Mills’s article appears somewhat muddled (£2 a week: the cost to you of bungled council budget, July 12).
Some simple points
* He describes the 2006/7 budget as bungled when it was set by the previous Labour administration.
* He suggests the new Liberal Democrat/Conservative partnership administration has frozen council tax from April 2007 by using reserves when we’ve done nothing of the kind. What we’ve actually done is to start to make the council more efficient, for example, turning back the 63 per cent increase in spending on temporary staff that took place between 2001/2 and 2005/6 when John Mills was responsible for the council’s finances.
* He suggests the figures are wrong whereas the proposals being put to the executive next week will bring the council within the reserves policy agreed in March 2007.
The council was successful in coming in under-budget, recovering overpayments and negotiating a refund of business rates from the Valuation Office. This means that we can put aside an extra £5 million to go towards our capital programme to tackle the years of underinvestment by Labour. It means we can do more to meet the priorities of the people of Camden, making it more sustainable, more attractive to live and work in and where more people have the opportunities they deserve.
CLLR JANET GRAUBERG
(Liberal Democrat) Executive member for resources

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, Camden New Journal, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@camdennewjournal.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Tuesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number. Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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