Labour’s Leader on West Sussex County Council, Cllr Michael Jones has called the recent budget “a missed opportunity”. The budget which was passed by the County County saw a rise in Council Tax all while millions of additional funding cuts were made to frontline services.

Cllr Michael Jones said, “Labour demonstrated that there could be an alternative vision for how this council goes forward and how services could be genuinely improved for everyone, preventing some of the most awful of this Tory leadership’s cuts this year.”

Labour submitted a number of amendment which could have lessened some of the proposed Tory cuts.

Cllr Jones continued, “the [Labour] amendment would have begun to address areas where the council is behind virtually all the other county councils, including the vital issue of road safety and reducing the number of killed and seriously injured on West Sussex roads (along with East Sussex). But to no avail.”

What is clear from this budget and the reports from recent inspections is that there needs to be a complete change of direction and leadership in County Hall, a task only Labour can deliver.