THE leader of Bracknell Forest council has dismissed the local Labour party’s response to impending budget cuts as “naive” after they urged him to renegotiate the borough’s budget with Westminster.

An executive statement released by Bracknell Labour urged leader Cllr Paul Bettison to renegotiate the financial settlement handed down from central government last December which slashed £11.6 million from Bracknell Forest’s budget this year.

In the letter, signed by key Bracknell Labour members, including Great Hollands councillor Mary Temperton and Labour chairman Roy Bailey, the local party also urges the council to protect youth services, early years services and adult social care commissioning from any cuts.

However, after already negotiating a transitional grant of £1.8 million from government in January to help alleviate budget pressures, Cllr Bettison say he was “surprised” at the statement.

He said: “I was quite surprised by the naivety of that. I’m afraid that once government announcements have been made on finance we can’t go back to them half way through the next year and say well actually we think we would like some more money.

“If they have identified a service that we should look after then we will have identified those same services. I don’t think the Labour group have a unique insight into areas that require care when it comes to looking at the budget.”

He added: “Unless Labour have found a gold mine and they are not telling us that then I’m afraid there’s no way we can reduce these cuts.”

Described as an unprecedented reduction in government grant, the cuts to the council budget have so far resulted in a 3.99 per cent increase in council tax and cuts to council department budgets.

However, with 80 per cent of Bracknell Forest’s revenue grant from government being slashed over the next four years, further budget savings are in the pipeline and could hit funding for the arts and charities.

Claiming the national Tory party has realised the impact of their cuts, Labour’s letter states: “Respecting the changed opinion of their leadership, local Conservatives must also stop to rethink their proposed cuts to vulnerable people.”

In a statement, Bracknell Labour said: “Bracknell’s transitional grant was agreed before the budget u-turns nationally.

“Osborne found £4.4 billion in a matter of days. It wasn’t naïve of him to reverse his cuts, it was welcomed. We’re glad there is now a cross-party understanding that cutting support to children, young people and vulnerable adults is wrong.

“If Cllr Bettison means what he says about not wanting to make cuts, he must take every opportunity, regardless of who suggests it, and put his full effort in to it.”