Hope of a quicker way out of this crisis

Preston Brooker is right there are currently 19 local councils where the relentless cuts from the Tory Governments since 2015 have led to the Government letting them taking special measures such as selling assets to balance their books (Viewpoint, 15 March).

But, in my letter (Viewpoint, 8 March) I specifically stated I was writing about the group of 6, yes Preston just 6, of the 19 councils where the councillors had failed so badly that the Government went much further than with the others and directly intervened. These 6 Councils, sadly including Slough under Labour rule, were facing complete collapse.

So, these 6 councils are now suffering drastic Government interventions such as sending in Commissioners to force massive cuts, assets sales and large council tax rises. The Commissioners in Slough insisted that the mess created by the incompetence of Labour councillors, on top of Tory Government funding cuts, was so bad that years of major service cuts and assets sales would be necessary to balance the books.

The failure by Slough’s Labour politicians to acknowledge their big role in creating this enormously challenging crisis, does nothing to help the multi-year task of restoring the council’s ability to provide the services residents deserve. Strong local action will be needed.

But, that will only take us so far. Council leaders across the country from all parties recently came together to say £4billion extra is needed by local councils to provide the vital services on which residents rely. Unfortunately, both Tory and Labour politicians at the national level stated they will not provide this money needed by local council services.

Thankfully, the Lib Dem Spring conference in York on 17 March committed the party to providing the money needed to save local council services if the Lib Dems get into a position after the next election to do so. This means it will become an issue at the next election.

I’m delighted to say my colleague, Chelsea Whyte, the Lib Dem candidate to become the next MP for Slough was there supporting this policy. Chelsea provides hope for the residents of Slough that there can be some quicker way out of the current crisis.

Josephine Hanney, Langley Lib Dems