… Meanwhile over at the other local paper, known colloquially in these parts as the ‘Express & Swastika‘ we find the Editor fair frothing at the mouth over the decision of Tory/Lib Dem led Dudley Council to cut rental funding from uniformed groups such as the Scouts, Guide and Boys Brigade.

Now aside from noting my usual unease at the idea of giving public funding to what were originally set up as youth paramilitary groups – but that’s another story – there are a few factual problems with Dudley MBC’s attempts to shift the blame for this one on to the Government – not least this press release from the Government News Network which shows that Dudley MBC should be receiving an extra £17.5 million in Government grant for this year (2005/6) over and above what it recieved the previous year (2004/5), an increase of 7.3% which is higher than any other local council.

Now on top of that we also have Dudley’s own budget which shows that although the Government factored in a 4.2% increase in council tax into its calculations – which presumably is the level at which it would apply a cap to Dudley MBC’s spending – in actual fact the Council expected to increase Council Tax by less than 3% – at least according to its own press release from December 2004.

So, logically, if the Council now finds itself short of cash then it has no one but itself to blame for setting a council tax rate below that which the Government would have permitted and it is, rather cheeky to say the least, for it to try to shift the blame to Government for a decision which was entirely its own.

In actual fact, what has happened here should be pretty obvious. The Tory-led council has taken the opportunity afforded by its increased grant to set as low a council tax rate as it thought it could get away with, knowing that a general election was due the following May. Its a simple matter of electioneering in the hope that by keeping Council Tax increases down it might improve its local candidates electoral fortunes.

Now, however, it finds itself coming up short – which usually means that somewhere in the council there’s department that’s been overspending and it now has the task of finding cuts elsewhere in order balance the books – and preferably the kind of cut which are least politically damaging, which invariably means that non-essential services and expenditure, such as money for voluntary groups, is often amongst the first areas to feel the pinch.

It’s also worth noting the apparent credulity of the Express & Star, which doesn’t appear to have done its homework properly before spouting forth on the presumed evils of central government as if it had, it wouldn’t now be in rather embarrassing position of having run off at the editorial ‘mouth’ only to find that the facts don’t back up either its or Dudley MBC’s effort to paint the Government as the villain of the piece – facts I might point out which took around 5 minutes at most to locate on the internet.

The Express & Star would like us to think that:

“Today in the Black Country we see how once-proud local democracy has become no more than a branch office of Downing Street.”

Unfortunately, today what we actually see is how the once-proud local press has become nothing more than an overly credulous and supine mouthpiece for a craven council which is unwilling to take responsiblity for its own embarrassing short-sightedness.

Now print that on your letters page!