Green Party councillor Deirdre de Burca says that the 2007 budget agreed last Monday by Wicklow County Councillors contained “no surprises”. She says the biggest change made by councillors to the Manager’s proposed budget was the reduction of the commercial rate in the county from 5.9% to 4.9%.

“I welcome the 40,000 euros discretionary spending that we included in the budget for each of the five electoral areas around the county” she says. “However, I am not happy with the 14% increase in the County Demand that Bray Town Council will have to pay Wicklow County Council for services provided, and I’m sure that Arklow and Wicklow Town Council’s are not happy with the 15% increase on last year’s County Demand.

De Burca says that there is a lack of transparency about the value for money that the Town Councils get from the County Demand charge that they pay to Wicklow County Council. “Certainly in Bray last year we paid more than 4 million euros to Wicklow County Council for the services it provides to us” she says. “I believe serious questions need to be asked about whether Bray Town Council actually got value for money last year, particularly in relation to the maintenance and upkeep of regional roads”.

The Green Party councillor says that the extra Local Government Funding provided to Wicklow County Council for 2007 by Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche was “disappointingly modest”. She says that Bray Town Council also received one of the lowest levels of Local Government Funding from the Department of the Environment last year when she was Chairperson of the council. “I hope the Minister has provided Bray Town Council with a much more generous level of Local Government Funding for 2007” she says. “Otherwise we will see the process of commercial and physical decline in Bray worsen considerably over the next year. The Minister needs to be much more generous in his funding for what is the largest town in County Wicklow”.

Cllr de Burca says that the 2007 Budget meeting for Bray Town Council will take place in early January. She says that last year’s Budget process was very contentious due to the size of the County Demand. “I hope we will not experience the same problems when agreeing next year’s budget” she says.