East Sussex County Council leader, Cllr. Peter Jones welcomed the localism bill and new financial arrangements for councils as, "the best news we have had in the past one hundred years. At last, the long creeping road to centralisation has been halted and reversed, giving us a chance to restore real municipal pride and initiative in local government." Cllr Jones explained that the vast network of central contols and direction was being dismantled not only returning decision making to councils and communities but cutting out huge unnecessary costs.
East Sussex will save millions from the changes in Government policy and cut costs by £100m (20%) over the next four years. "Change is never easy and we will need to reduce our payroll by some 200 full time jobs but neither is so difficult and,because we are now receiving a fairer share of capital funding we will -
- Build three new academies in Hastings and Eastbourne
- Accelerate refurbisment and extensions at other schools
- Carry out the biggest road improvement programme that the County has ever seen
- Lead the introduction of super fast broadband in East Sussex with BT and other partners
- Offer to take over the construction of the Bexhill/Hastings Link Road.
- All of this will be achieved with NO increase in council tax this year and every effort to repeat that in subsequent years.