The Green councillors on Dorset Council have supported the Council’s budget for next year but say it lacks ambition.
At yesterday’s full Council meeting the leader of the Green Group, Clare Sutton said: “We think this Council can do better than ‘safe and legal’, and should be preparing itself to tackle some of our more entrenched issues”.
She highlighted four issues to tackle as a priority:
- housing (particularly for young people and essential workers) – Dorset Council needs to do much better on this, to keep our young people and essential workers in the county, and should consider providing social housing directly. This received some support from members of all parties.
- reverse the decline of public transport particularly in rural areas – we need to improve the mobility of mainly younger, poorer and elderly residents and think Dorset Council should seriously consider running some of this directly. Again, this received some cross-party support.
- reversing cutbacks to youth services – SO many Youth Clubs in Dorset, including 6 in Weymouth and Portland alone, have closed since the swingeing cuts in 2016. Those that remain need more help as running costs escalate.
- surplus Dorset Council-owned assets – a more commercial (and far swifter!) approach to this is needed to resource greater ambition in the above areas.
You can watch Clare’s full speech here:
County Hall photo credit: Chris Talbot