Labour canvassers in Stroud are telling residents that Greens voted with Tory councillors at Gloucestershire County Council to cut funding for Community Hubs.
This is untrue.
What actually happened during the Budget setting was this:
Greens asked for amendments to the budget to give £420,000 to social and environmental projects. The Tories accepted our amendments.
Labour also asked for an amendment – to have £550,000 made available for councillor funding (which could have been used – as David Drew has done in the past – for community hubs).
The Tories rejected this amendment, and the Greens abstained as there was by then no money available for the amendment, because all of the pot had been allocated (to Green and jointly agreed amendments).
As there was no alternative budget on the table, Greens voted for the budget, since we’d got everything we’d asked for.
Since then, the Tories have found a spare £20,000 per councillor, and reinstated the councillor funding scheme anyway.
To repeat, Greens did NOT vote against the Labour amendment and we certainly did not vote to cut hub funding.
Click here to read the relevant minutes, where the relevant pages are 15-22.