County councillor Lynda Atkins quits pact with Conservative party before vote on controversial budget plans

Lynda Atkins said she would vote with the Labour Group instead, weakening a Tory administration that is relying on a wafer-thin majority to pass its controversial budget plans at today’s full Oxfordshire County Council meeting in Oxford.

Mrs Atkins, right, said: “I have thought long and hard about this and it seems to me the Labour plan offers more hope to people in Oxfordshire than those put forward by the Conservatives.”

Her defection means Independent councillors Mark Gray and Les Sibley could now have casting votes if opposition parties unite against the Conservative-run council’s budget.

Councillors are due to meet today at 10am in County Hall, Oxford, to decide the local authority’s spending plans for the next four years, with protesters expected to hold demonstrations outside.

The debate is scheduled to last until after 7pm but there were claims it could run past midnight if parties fail to reach agreement.

The Conservative proposals would scrap mobile libraries, children’s centres and bus subsidies, as well as reduce funding for the arts, homeless support, road gritting, elderly day services and support for carers.

Enough is Enough – a coalition of charities, care organisations and campaign groups – yesterday branded the measures “inhuman, damaging and short-sighted”.

The group warned councillors: “In agreeing this budget, you are turning your back on Oxfordshire people in need.

“The long-term cost to the public purse will be immense; the short-term damage to lives will be horrendous.”

An alternative put forward by the Labour group – which still carries forward most savings – would reverse £2m of cuts to children’s centres, with £1m spent on so-called ‘pump-priming’ funds to help volunteer groups take on their management.

A £2m saving that would see health and wellbeing centres close has also been removed and the start of £1.5m of cuts to homeless support groups would be delayed until 2018.

Labour’s figures also rely on controversial plans for a workplace parking levy on businesses being brought forward in Oxford by 2018. The group estimates it would generate £2.2m annually.

It would also charge schools for assistance in converting to academies.

Conservative county council leader Ian Hudspeth said the proposals simply “deferred savings until a later date” and insisted his group would press ahead with its own budget.

He added: “We have to be more realistic and take the difficult decisions now, so we have something left for the county in the future.”

All Conservative councillors were expected to turn up and vote with the leadership, he said.

Meanwhile the Green Party group called for a “dented shield” approach, requiring an overall council tax rise of seven per cent.

This would mean holding a public referendum on the increase but would reverse cuts to children’s centres completely, as well as bus subsidies, elderly day centres, homeless support, and would cut senior manager pay and the number of cabinet positions, leader David Williams said.

He added: “We believe if all the parties get together to campaign and tell people this is the only way to protect frontline services then we could win a referendum.”

The Liberal Democrats said no plan put forward by any party “would be anywhere near enough” to make savings required.

It called for a public consultation on forming a single, ‘unitary’ council for Oxfordshire, which would replace the district councils and save more than £30m annually according to a report published last year.

Group leader Richard Webber added the Lib Dems would back Labour if it agreed to holding the consultation.

Campaigners claim more than 19,500 children currently using children’s centres would be “adversely affected by their closures.

AS IT STANDS

The Conservatives won 31 out of 63 seats on Oxfordshire County Council in the 2013 elections. Group leader Ian Hudspeth said the alliance with three Independent councillors would ensure a “stable administration”.

That stability has now been threatened. Councillor Lynda Atkins, an Independent, has withdrawn from the Conservative-Independent Alliance, taking the group’s majority down to three.

If all 15 Labour, 11 Lib Dem and two Green councillors – as well as Independent Neville Harris – vote the same way, this would mean the budget will hinge on the votes of Independent councillors Les Sibley and Mark Gray.

If they choose to back opposition parties, they could defeat the Conservative budget with a majority of one.