Redcar Lib Dems demand an end to Labour budget gobbledegook

Liberal Democrats have slammed Labour Council bosses after it emerged that Redcar and Cleveland Council’s budget reports are by far the hardest to understand in the country.

The study by the Manchester Evening News declared the Council’s budget report more complex than Professor Steven Hawking’s ‘A Brief History of Time’.

According to a recent analysis which used four different measures to determine how difficult the budget report was to read, someone would need 22.5 years of education to understand the council’s papers, making it the equivalent of a university doctorate level text.

Steve Jenner from the Plain English Campaign described the contents as ‘gobbledygook’. Lib Dem Council Group Leader and Finance Spokesman, Councillor Glyn Nightingale, said:

“Professor Hawking will be relieved that his book is less taxing. "I knew something was wrong when, after I had read the budget reports, I picked up a book on nuclear physics for a bit of light relief!

“But there is a serious side to this. It is undemocratic. People should be able to understand what is being done by their elected councillors. Explaining things in a more complicated way than necessary excludes people.

“Labour’s Council bosses really need to get themselves on a Plain English course.

"Or is there some financial mismanagement that they want to hide?"

Plans to build 320 houses in Ormesby refused

The Council’s Regulatory Committee by 6 votes to five has refused planning permission for 320 houses to be built on the Longbank Farm site in Ormesby.

Only Labour Councillors supported the application.

It’s a victory for the campaign by local residents and Lib Dem Councillors to protect green areas.

The Committee only gave three local residents and three councillors three minutes each to support refusal while the case in favour took 45 minutes.

Ormesby Councillor and Lib Dem Group Leader Glyn Nightingale said:

“It’s great that our efforts working local residents has kept our area’s open spaces free from totally inappropriate development. The impact on traffic, local schools and local amenities would have been devastating.”

Prospective Lib Dem MP for the Redcar Constituency Josh Mason commented:

“The Longbank Farm site is just one of the Labour Council’s favoured areas for house building on local green field sites. Residents don’t want this. The Liberal Democrats don’t want this. And I shall work with local residents to make sure this doesn’t happen. The Council should be protecting green field sites not ruining them.”

Pictured left to right: Councillor Ann Wilson, Councillor Irene Nightingasle, Councillor Josh Mason, Councillor Gluyn Nightingale.