Making a difference to the people of Medway

Deputy Leader Alan Jarrett: Despite making do with less, shows will still go on

Article posted on Friday, 9 July 2010

How do we measure quality of life in Medway? A matter of perspective, but if residents have somewhere to go and things to do they are likely to feel better all round.

With more than £6 million of spending reductions announced last week, including 50 jobs being lost in the council, the need for reassurance is high. Medway council has to strike a balance with the services it provides, and spend available money in a way that will benefit most of the community it serves.

Despite the reductions, services remain intact. This means that we are having to make do with less – the challenge for us will be how we deal with the next round of government spending reductions which will follow later in the year.

As ever with spending reductions, elected members of the council have to make choices. Few of these choices are easy, particularly when they affect jobs and peoples’ lives.

Some of the reductions around spending in schools were made against the backcloth of maintaining expenditure in other ways and finding innovative ways to retaining services. Partnership working will be crucial in the months and years ahead; as well all grapple with how to make the best use of all public money.

We had to make choices between removing back office functions and cutting into highways, leisure and festival spending.

Our roads and pavement network is in an increasingly good state of repair, and it was inconceivable to reducing spending in those areas.

Similarly, after huge investment in our libraries, theatres and museums these areas had to be preserved. Similarly, preservation of our youth services is of paramount importance.

The festivals, for which Medway is renowned, might have seemed an obvious choice for trimming spending. But what a desolate, soulless place Medway could become if we stopped spending on the very thing that enhance the quality of life I referred to above.

Our many festivals – two Dickens festivals, Sweeps, Will Adams, Medieval Merriment, and Traditional England – draw huge numbers of visitors to Medway.

There are going to be difficult times ahead, but it’s up to the Conservative- led council to preserve the very things that make Medway such a special place.