The real financial crunch has yet to come warns rebel Wiltshire councillor Jeff Osborn

Massive government funding restrictions still in the pipeline will leave local government authorities unable to carry out their statutory duties under the law and facing the threat of becoming the victims of legal action in the courts.

The grim warning has come from independent Wiltshire Councillor Jeff Osborn in the wake of the defeat on Tuesday of his motion demanding the scrapping of personal allowance increases of up to 36.5 per cent for Wiltshire’s top Tory councillors.

“The money we might have saved is but a spit in the bucket compared with the financial cuts facing every council in the country,” 71-year-old Councillor Osborn told Marlborough News Online.  “The real crunch has yet to come because it is now realised the Chancellor has gone over the top.

“We’re going to have hell of a time.  And it may well lead to members of the public taking councils to court for failing to obey the law laid down by Parliament in carrying out their basic legal duties.

“The government bribes councils with a little extra money at the moment to persuade them not to put up council tax, but you might as well scrap council tax altogether in the future with all funding coming directly from central government the way things are going.

“And that raises the whole question of local government’s autonomy, so-called localism and the ability of democratically elected councillors deciding what is best for their areas.

“The tragic flooding that has happened in the Somerset Levels is a prime example of what is happening, the government’s failure to realise that when disaster hits you have to put in millions to alleviate the dire problems parts of the country are facing.

“The public searchlight is now us in Wiltshire and residents will soon see the serious troubles ahead.”

Councillor Osborn, a retired lecturer in politics and economics, said that one of three things he had learned from Tuesday’s extraordinary meeting he and other rebel Independent, Lib Dem and Labour councillors had called was the shocking lack of morality and fairness in the demands made by the arrogant Conservative-controlled council.

Under public pressure the statutory authority’s leader, Councillor Jane Scott, may have denied herself an annual pay rise to £52,227 but members of her Cabinet would still enjoy a rise of 22 per cent in their personal allowances as a result of the 60 to 24 vote defeat of his motion.

“The best speeches for rescission all touched on morality and fairness,” declared Councillor Osborn, a local councillor since 1996.  “Some were almost Christian in sentiment with reference to community and social responsibility, the fact that people didn’t enter local politics with the expectation of making money out of allowances intended basically to cover their expenses.

“What happened was the utter confusion I predicted before the meeting.  Basically, the Tory councillors were all crying out ‘Me, me, me’ with absolutely no idea of all those people living in fear of pay day loans, food banks, benefit cuts, the bedroom tax and the reality of increasing poverty.”

He was also appalled at the “boorish behaviour” of some Tory councillors and the way they had jeered at members of the public, in particular a woman representing CPRE who attended the meeting to raise a planning issue, whose notes were almost swept out of her hand.

While he was delighted at being described as a Moonraker – “It seems I have arrived,” said Councillor Osborn —  the public image the council had presented of itself proved to be “a really bad day for the Conservatives”.

His final point was the way the council was “caught on the hop” by not knowing its own constitution that allowed an extraordinary meeting to be called and his fears that the constitution might now be altered.

“The Tories were also very critical of the petition that was presented signed by more than 2,600 people totally opposed to the personal allowance increases, implying that it was somehow rigged and unrepresentative.

“Overall it was a bad day for the Tories as well as the people of Wiltshire — and an unwelcome warning that there is much worse to come.”