Dear Sir
Councillor Andrew Judge ('Reserves will not prevent the cuts', 19 March) comes closer to telling you the truth than previously but still thinks he can play the 'three card trick' on council taxpayers. He is now using final numbers first seen on 1st March when Councillors received a lever arch file of papers for Merton's Budget on 6th March.
He is a former Leader of the Council and so am I. Council Finances are complex but in early January the Director of Corporate Services briefed Conservative Councillors and quoted the certified usable reserves figure – to be found on the Council's website - of £115m as at 31 March 2014. Yes, it does contain money owned by the schools and for capital projects but at that date the General Fund Balances (think of it as your current account) and earmarked reserves (e.g. savings) totalled £68.7m – an increase of £38.3m from the £30.4m held in 2010 - more than two thirds the planned service cuts of £56.5m in the same period
If this was an accident then it was a monumental miscalculation – year after year – but it was not planned for in a budget. However, having 'bagged' extra savings averaging £9.5m a year they have been 'earmarked' for future use. There was no science about what went into which 'pot' but it was choice. It was Labour's choice to sit on money and not to spend. It was their choice to 'earmark' and not save services like Merton Adult Education or Youth Centres.
What has been earmarked can be redesignated but Labour in Merton choose to do the three card trick on residents, keeping Council Tax unchanged with a large government grant and then blaming that same government for the cuts Merton chooses to make. The Council goes into 2015/16 with £40m in available revenue reserves to protect services – and that is no trick
Councillor David Williams
Conservative, Hillside Ward