The Horsell's Mouth Politics, pedantry and personal interests

I wasn’t at the Overview and Scrutiny session last night because it was the other half’s birthday but the Lib Dems called in the decision to create a club membership for those residents who use The Vyne and the other day centres around the borough.

The new system will provide benefits for club members and will only cost a nominal amount – £8 a year for goodness’ sake – and will allow the council to keep better information on who uses their services and therefore what their needs in the community may be. I can fully appreciate why the principle of charging for a hitherto discretionary will cause anxiety to some but the truth is that the council has been placed in such a difficult position by its lack of funding from government that it needs to look at whether non-statutory services across the board can be provided for nothing.

There remains a commitment on behalf of the Conservatives not to cut any front-line services in 2010/11 and this is a key priority for the group. To be fair to the Lib Dems, I believe that they are seeking more information on this for the best of reasons and the account that I received of last night’s meeting shows that they acted reasonably and without political malice by not insisting on a vote. I could, of course, be totally hoodwinked and the reason for the call-in may become clear in due course.

But the officers’ report shows clearly that we cannot sustain the day centre service for nothing. It is of course important that as few people as possible should be excluded from the services and details of how to deal with possible circumstances that might otherwise result in exclusion are being hammered out. It’s vital to get these right. But on the other hand

“It is clear from this information that the majority of Surrey Districts and Boroughs already have in place a Centres Membership scheme, although the way in which it is applied, and to what range of services, varies.”

is the officer view and it can’t be ignored.

It’s always painful to introduce a new charge but until we have a review of the way local government is funded, Surrey will pay the price of being a no-win area for Labour.

Update 16/9 : Cllr Denzil Coulson has enlightened us on his blog about exactly why this decision was called in. It’s apparently because we haven’t thought everything through properly. Well, it’s certainly important to think everything through so if the Lib Dems feel better about it all now for having the meeting on Monday, that’s fine. I notice that Cllr Coulson stops short of saying that the Lib Dems will oppose the card scheme pending the council meeting on October 1. So do they support it or oppose it?

Or, as usual, are they waiting to see which way the wind blows before they make a “principled” stand?