Cabinet dismissed the proposal to explore a new hardship fund without properly reading the recommendation.
As predicted in our article on 26 August, the Council’s Cabinet this evening was quick to dismiss the proposal to explore the setting up of a hardship fund for residents.
The recommendation put forward by Councillor Thorpe on 18 August was specifically to explore the setting up of a fund. The word explore was not even heard in the chamber this afternoon. They did not read the recommendation.
Councillor Bernard Sarson, Executive Member for Community Safety and Parking, introduced the recommendation by referring to it as the “setting up of a hardship fund”. Completely overlooking the fact that the Cabinet Panel recommendation was for work to be done to look at the feasibility of such a fund.
Reasons against setting up a new fund included pre-existing discounts to blue badge holders, doctors and health professionals, as well as a 50% concession on visitor passes for pensioners. Plus the fact that the cost of parking permits in the borough is lower than the Hertfordshire average (ignoring the fact that the average income in the county is higher than the average in the borough). All well and good, but what about any residents in receipt of universal credit?
Councillor Sarson concluded his introduction of the matter by saying asking the Cabinet to reject the recommendation. Interesting considering that less than three weeks ago he was supportive of the recommendation and said in CPPP he was sure Cabinet would “look at it”. A cursory glance was all it seemed to be afforded.
Four of the seven Cabinet members remained silent for the whole (albeit short) discussion on the matter.
The Leader, Councillor Tony Kingsbury followed up on his colleague’s comments about the other support the council offer to local residents, reiterating that a lot of support the council offers is on the website. Note that one of the ways the council “helps” that is linked from the homepage of the website is the subsidised travel on the community buses. A service that is already under threat as reported here.
Councillor Fiona Thomson was in support of rejecting the proposal, saying that she understood the reasoning but that the funding wasn’t targetted.
Of course it’s not targetted. No one has been given the chance to explore the idea yet. Back to the wording of the recommendation (not mentioned this evening). Any fund would be for those who could demonstrate the impact the additional cost of a permit would have upon them. There’s your targetting. Where’s the exploration?
