A tough 7-hour budget meeting ending close to midnight (12th February) led to a compromise budget which included numerous ideas which started out in the Green budget.

• All parties proposed increases in car parking charges to raise revenue - but the final budget amendment that dealt with car park charging rates (passed by the Greens and Labour) was a compromise between the Green and Labour positions. The lower levels of increases proposed by the LibDems would have led to considerable constraints on spending.
• Reversal of spending on leisure trust outsourcing appeared in both Lab and Green budgets (not in the LibDem budget).
• Savings from reorganising business units appeared in all three main party budgets.
• The agreed level of Council Tax (3%) was in both Green and LibDem budgets (Labour voted to set Council Tax at 4%)

Spending highlights (items marked with * were in original Green budget):

There was tri-partite agreement (between Lab/LibDem/Greens) on the following spending proposals:

• Reversing cuts to allotments *
• Extending burial service to weekends to meet needs of Muslims and Jews *
• Reversing area committee budget cuts *
• A study on housing foyer *
• New energy officer post and small spending budget *
• Funding for new Cowley Customer Service Centre
• Additional weekly waste contingency *

There was bi-partite agreement (LibDem/Green on the following spending proposals with Lab voting AGAINST):

• Benefits take-up campaign *
  

• Reversing cut to Asian families worker *
• Additional Dial-a-ride service
• Reversing cut to playscheme co-ordinator *
• Additional money for playgrounds *
• Additional money for Climate Change *
• Additional post within environmental health
• More money for Area Committees to be distributed according to social deprivation *
• Reversal of cut to domestic violence officer *

As is the nature of compromise budgets, not all Green proposals were funded. For example, the LibDems and Lab joined forces to cut £150,000 of funding for energy efficiency and renewables on Council houses. This would have helped tenants with their fuel bills. Neither would the LibDems or Lab agree to spend more money on customer care training for staff, a study on teh feasibility of trams, bike hire and rickshaws in the City, more money for free loft insulation, a study on the future of the canal basin, nor a manager to support small retailers in the face of the looming competition from the Westgate expansion.

All-in-all, the Greens managed to secure 18 out of their 25 budget proposals.

Says Green Group leader Craig Simmons, who presented the budget, "No budget-setting process is easy - but the Greens succeeded in getting many excellent ideas adopted. There is substantial new money to tackle climate change - which will yields savings on energy costs in future years - and we provided additional funds to maintain playgrounds, a campaign to improve benefits take-up, and avoided cuts to children's playschemes. Meanwhile, there were substantial areas of agreement between the Council's three largest Groups on money to improve the new recycling scheme, extending the burial service and reversing cuts to allotments and area committees."

Note: The Greens hold the balance of power on Oxford City and neither Labour or LibDem groups are able to set the budget without Green support.