DARLINGTON’S Labour council has defended accusations from its Tory opposition that it is leading the authority into bankruptcy.

A full council meeting this evening (Thursday, February 26) saw a council tax increase of 1.99 per cent approved, along with the budget for the next four years, but Darlington Borough Council’s figures were criticised by the opposition.

Conservative councillor Charles Johnson pointed out that council tax has doubled under the Labour administration and that expenditure has exceeded income almost annually since 1997.

He said: “The message is simple; expenditure continues to exceed income, generating an ever-increasing deficit.

“This is perhaps no surprise as this was the outcome of the last Labour Government, qualified by the famous Treasury note ‘there’s no money left’.

“We are moving into a period where reserves and efficiencies are becoming more inaccessible.

“My question is; what is your plan to stop your administration taking this council to a place known in business as bankruptcy.”

Council leader Bill Dixon responded by saying he was “disappointed” that the Conservatives opposed the budget measures without providing an alternative.

He said: “You have not moved any amendment to the budget so it is difficult to argue against your alternative.

“According to you and Cllr Coultas we are all going to Hell in a handcart, we can only imagine that you are willing to jump in with us because you have not drawn up an alternative.

“The reality is that you have not done so because you know what it would look like.”

Cllr Dixon added that the council has borrowed against projected income streams, such as rent revenue from the new Department for Education building and income from the multi-storey car park, which was a “sensible way to do business”.

He said: “With capital expenditure such as the DofE building, the multi storey car park and so on, your hand, Charles, was up there along with everyone else’s until it comes to the end of the year and you say we are on the edge of a precipice.

“We are not on the edge of a precipice.

“We have a significant capital programme because Darlington can and does deliver, so for God’s sake stop running it down.”

Conservative group leader Heather Scott later presented a 1,010 name petition against the council tax rise collected by Conservative parliamentary candidate Peter Cuthbertson and resident Kevin Nicholson.

She claimed the council was doing Darlington residents a disservice by not accepting an annual £440,201 central government grant it would receive if it froze the tax.

Cllr Stephen Harker, deputy leader of the council, said the authority would be worse off it took that route and again criticised the opposition for not providing a sensible alternative.