'˜All you're doing is moving the problem': Louth councillors blast ELDC proposals

The presentation on the ‘Transformation Plan’ was given by Coun Guyatt alongside Chief Finance Officer Rob Barlow, and comes in light of massive cuts in central government funding.

Coun George Horton received applause after a passionate speech in which he implored ELDC to “invest in the economy, invest in people, and create jobs”.

He said: “When has this district council ever invested in something of substantial strength in this district?”, adding that councils in North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire were investing in their assets in order to receive a return in a few years time.

He added: “All you’re doing is moving [the problem] out of East Lindsey’s way to the local parishes.

“Let them have the problem; it comes off East Lindsey’s books.”

Coun Horton and Coun Andrew Leonard also slammed ELDC for spending hundreds of thousands of pounds towards the SO Festival, while services such as footpath lighting are under threat.

Coun Leonard added that traffic enforcement officers were “gradually, slowly, killing Louth” and appealed for “common sense, rather than a sort of Third Reich approach” towards traffic enforcement, so as not to deter people from visiting the town.

Coun Stephenson said she was glad that increasing council tax was a possibility, as it is “quite frustrating to see that we have the lowest council tax, but we also don’t have the services that we need sometimes”.