At last night's Council budget meeting it became clear that the Greens are the only effective opposition party in Oxford. Cllr Ed Turner (Labour) admitted as much by complimenting the Greens' budget as workable but too 'green' for the Labour group to even negotiate over. It was less effort for them to agree a compromise with an unimaginative Liberal Democrat budget that hardly differed from Labour's anyway.
Amongst the items the Labour-Lib Dem pact could not be bothered to consider were :
- support for programmes that draw in additional funds to insulate domestic properties
- a feasibility study on a city centre 'cycle hub'
- a Sustainability Officer post. There are good ideas being floated for cost-effective carbon reduction schemes but the Council has no staff resources to explore them. They are content to be a talking shop.
- taking up a new scheme that offers guaranteed income from sale of renewable energy by installing solar PV panels on the Council building.
- support for a programme to prevent the most vulnerable being made homeless
For Labour and Lib Dem, it would seem, such things are not worth considering. They take the line of least resistance and offer unimaginative 'business as usual'. They can't be trusted to prepare Oxford for its most serious future challenges without robust opposition from the Green Party.
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