Labour's budget games

What a surprise! - The Labour Group on Southend Council has announced that it will not participate in the confidential member discussions on possible budget cuts for next year. In every budget debate the opposition parties whinge about the fact they are allegedly excluded from the budget process untill decisions have been taken by the Administration. This year they have been given the chance to contribute at the very beginning of the process and to influence where the difficult decisions are being made but have refused to do so.Perhaps they are too busy! What is the point of electing councillors who fail to take advantage of important opportunities to represent their residents? Of course they can always repeat their tactics of the last 3 years - make no suggestions or amendments to the proposed budget and simply vote against it. So much for constructive politics! Let us see if the other opposition parties take advantage of this chance.