The South East Councils asked the public which cuts scenarios they were most concerned about. The public did not express as much concern as the Councils probably hoped in a number of areas. On climate change 61% of Councillors wanted increased public transport but only 32% of the public did. Only 17% of the public wanted more EV charging points which are now making their costly appearance more often. 46% of Councillors wanted more financial assistance for insulating homes but only 32% of the public. Only 14% said they plan to buy or drive an electric vehicle.
In area after area Councillors wanted a higher spending more interventionist model of local government whereas more of the public did not. The survey was a typical one with so many Labour and Lib Dem Councillors on the organisation. It was skewed to wanting more and bigger local government and more spending. There were no reported options to spend less, reduce the number of things Councils do, to reduce executive and admin staffing levels, and to cut down the number of bogus consultations where Councils then ignore the findings if they do not like them. There was no option to stop the aggressive spending on removing lanes, reducing flows at junctions, narrowing roads and making it very difficult to drive to work or school.
The survey did capture people’s frustrations that local government makes important decisions about their lives but the people do not feel part of the process or empowered to stop bad decisions being made. Lib Dem Wokingham is an example of a Council which ignores public opinion after spending a lot on consultant designed schemes and on consultations. It specialises in spending money on trying to get more people to abandon their cars as it follows its anti motorist agenda.
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