Call for fair deal for Leicestershire taken to County Council

A motion is being taken to Leicestershire County Council urging the Council’s new leadership to campaign for a fair deal for Leicestershire.

The motion highlights how Leicestershire is bottom of the league for government funding and how many other services like the fire, police and NHS also receive below average funding.

Proposer of the motion Liberal Democrat Councillor Michael Mullaney said “For years under the Conservative and now the Labour government Leicestershire has been placed to the back of the queue for funding. Our area deserves more support and funding for it’s key public services. This is an opportunity to highlight how Leicestershire continues to be let down by government. Our area being bottom of the table for funding means that more pressure is put on things like road and pavement repairs and increased pressure is put on social care and special educational needs provision.

“Governments the last Conservative one and now this Labour one demand that there are tens of thousands more houses built in Leicestershire but refuse to provide the funding for the infrastructure that is needed to go with them.

“I hope every member of the County Council can support this motion and I hope the new leadership of the County makes it a priority to demand Leicestershire gets a fair deal from the government.”

Ann Pendlebury who is seconding the motion said “Leicestershire County Council has been forgotten by successive governments for many years. This has shown in how we continue to remain the worst funded County in the Country. We need to send a message to the Chancellor that this must stop now. We must call for the Chancellor to demonstrate that the residents of Leicestershire matter as much as every other County in the Country and fund our County properly. We cannot continue to allow our police force to remain so under resourced that, according to the Leicestershire Police Federation, 20% of officers would like to leave as soon as possible. We need to ensure that our ambulance service can respond to the needs of our residents in a timely manner and fire services are available when needed. We need to ensure that our crumbling schools such as Battling Brook in my own ward, have enough funds to ensure that they have the money to repair buildings without this impacting on staffing levels. We need Rachel Reeves to finally address this imbalance and ensure that Leicestershire’s residents wellbeing and safety are put at the top of the funding league.”