Diary and Comments of East Sussex County Councillor Bob Tidy
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Jan 2011:  These last few months have been very challenging for all in local government trying to maintain our promise to the residents while at the same time dealing with the unprecedented reduction in funding from Central Government.

ESCC has been working to a model that allowed for 25 % (£60m) reduction equally over 4 years. In fact we have got to make savings of £100m over the years front loaded so that there will be a reduction of £37.1m each year for the first  two years. Children Services alone will lose nearly £14m while at the same time supporting an ever growing number of vulnerable children as a result of the Baby Peter case. This we are confident can be managed but with staff redundancies and the cessation of some services and cutting back on others. 

The Capital Programme has survived largely intact apart from the Bexhill - Hastings Link Road which has been put back to 2012 when it will be reassessed. Local government is not allowed to move capital funds to revenue funding streams so our 3 Academy School schemes can go ahead as will the new archive centre (The Keep), library modernisation and many hundreds of new primary school places.

ESCC has not been hit as badly as some because only 30% of its revenue came from central government where as others received 70% from the centre.

Now some good news, Children's Services have been awarded a GOOD rating by Ofsted for child protection services. The report concluded that children at risk and children in care were being well looked after and in some cases the service was outstanding.

Locally the new library has been a great success and the usage has escalated. The verges of Buckhurst Lane will not be mown this spring to protect the plant species growing there; Mr David Norris and his wife have identified many hundreds of plants some of them extremely rare that are at risk of being killed off.  Where growth is excessive and will cause safety issues it will be cut back by a more sensitive striimmer operator.

I am sure that we have in place systems that will deal with our challenges.                       Bob Tidy