ll the Lib Dems have to offer

the people of Hampshire are lies.

Do Lib Dems really think that they can con people

into voting for them by telling them lies?

Liars are always found out.

Currently Lib Dems are lying about how Conservatives run the County Council.

When the press discovered the Lib Dem lie about a new office block being built to contain a “luxury suite for the Conservative leader” they challenged the Lib Dem leader, who responded with another lie, saying that the Conservative Leader was already in this “new Luxury suite” described in the leaflet.

Then it was revealed that the building in which the leaflet said the office is located is currently being demolished!

The Lib Dem Leader compounded this by saying that over the past couple of years the Conservative record on the County Council had been “appalling”

Do Lib Dems really think that the Independent Audit Commission would award the County Council its highest rating as an Excellent Four Star authority that is attracting the highest marks for user satisfaction for any County Council that it has inspected if these Lib Dem Lies were true?

Is this the responsible action of one who presumes to be Leader of the Council?

If Lib Dems are willing to lie to get into office, heaven help us if they were ever able to achieve their aim. The last time they had a short period of control of the County Council they decimated reserves, leading the Council to be at the mercy of the moneylenders, raided the library book fund of £1 million and offered to give away 26 nursing homes as they felt (rightly) they were incapable of managing them

Briefing notes for Councillors

Lie One

The Conservatives are building £43 million building for Conservative Councillors containing a luxury office suite for the Conservative leader.

A new building is not being constructed. Ashburton Court is being refurbished using capital from the sale of unwanted assets to save on repair bills impacting on the Council Tax.

Repairs to the building would have to made on annual basis and would need a budget of £millions per year and be a charge on the Council Tax. So dilapidated is the building that it is valued at zero.

Selling off un used assets pays for the refurbishment out of the Capital receipt without impacting on Council Tax. The refurbishment of the building bringing it up to 21^st Century standards of building and sustainability values it at over £30 million and the extra accommodation for another 400 staff allows leases on other office accommodation to be relinquished thus saving on annual rental and reducing this charge on the Council Tax.

The refurbishment is not costing £43 million.

It will not have a new “luxury office suite” for the Council leader, neither is it to provide accommodation for Conservative Councillors. It is to provide office accommodation for 1,000 council employees, 600 of whom currently work in Ashburton Court and the other 400, will come from accommodation that is currently being leased, in order to save on rentals.

Lie Two

Services are being cut by £25 million.

Efficiency savings of £25 million from procurement and back office functions have been made and will be spent on improving front line services and to contain increases in the Council Tax.

Lie Three

The council is cutting vital care services:

The Council has not and cannot cut Social Care services. It has a statutory obligation to provide Social Care for all who qualify for it.

That is why last year it spent over £11.5 million extra on care services for the increased number of people that qualified for care over and above the number that were budgeted for this care based on previous years turnover figures.

The Council has not only increased the budget for care services over the sums provided by Central government over the last three years but it has built 10 new nursing homes for the elderly and infirm and upgraded and completely refurbished 11 more existing homes to provide better accommodation for the people who need it and replace homes which are no longer fit for purpose.

It is providing new and innovative services allowing a range of choices for people who need care: individual budgets for those who can, to provide the care services they need for themselves; ‘extra care’ so that elderly couples or individuals, can move into rented sheltered accommodation, to look after themselves in warden controlled accommodation, and special innovative services to ensure that people are able to continue to live independently at home for as long as they are able to with adequate supervision.

Lie Four

5,000 low paid staff to staff to suffer pay cut.

Pay is not being cut. Under the government’s equal pay requirement a job evaluation exercise has been carried out. Grading changes will result. Where staff pay is considered to be too low, upgrades will be applied. Where it is judged to be too high, pay will be frozen for two years or until it reaches the agreed level if earlier. The number involved will not be established until pay levels are known. (see Pay and Benefits note attached).

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After receiving a letter from Ken Thornber, the Leader of the County Council, calling on him to withdraw untrue statements made in Lib Dem leaflets, Councillor Adrian Collett, the Hampshire Lib Dem Leader, responded by issuing a press release containing further misleading and untrue statements.

In order to put the record straight Councillor Ken Thornber has released the following statement:

“I regret very much that Councillor Collett feels unable to ask his members to withdraw the untrue statements made in Lib Dem leaflets. Instead he has resorted to making more untrue and politically inspired attacks on the County Council.

I find it incredible that he can make these unfounded remarks about the County Council after his recent attendance at a Cabinet meeting with members of the Independent Audit Commission and listening to the outcome of the Commission’s annual scrutiny report on the Council and its services, and the clear and unambiguous statement that:

“The Council has a consistent track record in improving outcomes for its residents. Where comparisons can be made it continues to improve each year relative to other councils, even in services which are already good.

The Council has continued to perform strongly to improve the services that matter most to its residents and customer satisfaction remains above average when compared to other Councils.”

Once again this year the Audit Commissioner awarded the County Council “four star” Excellent status for its services and the highest award in the country for its Social Care Supporting People Programme.

How did we achieve this status?

Unlike the time when Lib Dems and Labour politicians ran the County Council and wanted to give away 26 of our Care Homes, Conservatives, now running the Council, have carried out a programme of refurbishment of these Care Homes to bring them up to 21^st Century standards and have not shirked from closing those that are no longer fit for purpose and re-providing these vital adult care services in modern, state of the art, buildings.

It is totally untrue for Councillor Collett to describe this as – closing care homes because “they can’t find the money to refurbish or rebuild them.”

The true facts are that we have found £50 million to build 10 new nursing homes and re-furbish 11 residential homes – providing many more beds for the elderly and infirm than when he was in office.

He might also might like to ask the people of Gosport, Lymington, Romsey Alton and many other towns; thousands of whom have beaten a path to their magnificent refurbished libraries (some people visiting them for the very first time) if they agree with him that we are “dumbing down libraries”.

Finally, he stated in his Focus publications “that the new Council offices in Winchester (the refurbished Ashburton Court building) will include a Luxury Leader’s Suite” for me.

This was, and is, totally untrue. Our other HQ building (near to Ashburton Court) is known as the QE II building is where my office is – no refurbishment will take place there.

Months ago I moved from my office to an office vacated by the Chairman, who has moved to Serles House. This is larger, but has not been redecorated since 1988; but did have a 20 year old threadbare carpet that was replaced three year’s ago.

Adrian Collett has moved the goal posts - and this reference now to an office that he well knows is not part of the refurbishment of Ashburton Court – can only be taken a tacit acknowledgement that he had been lying about a “luxury office” being provided for me in Ashburton Court.