Article submitted by David Bigby, Ashby Town Councillor (Labour) for Willesley Ward.

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Labour councillors have welcomed the announcement that many of their key demands have been included in the District Council's draft budget for next financial year. These include: 

• reinstatement of Age UK's grant, previously cut, to ensure continuation of their elderly befriending service;
• a strengthened street cleaning team with extra staff and a new dedicated vehicle;
• funding the next phase feasibility study into recovering energy from mine water to heat the Coalville and Whitwick Leisure Centre and stop using gas;
• restoring the council's community focus team to full strength;
• a scheme to address the current double taxation of residents of Ashby, Castle Donington and Kegworth for maintenance of their closed churchyards;
• reinstatement of Ashby museum's grant.

The draft budget was debated at the council's corporate scrutiny committee on Thursday.

Labour Group Leader, John Legrys, said, "This year we laid out a series of important issues we wanted the ruling Conservative, Lib Dem Alliance to include in their budget and we are pleased to see that most are there. We also welcome the announcement that the threatened 10% increase in car parking charges has been dropped following pressure from all sides.

"However, we still have concerns about the draft budget as it currently stands. We do not support the inequitable treatment of Ashby with the proposed addition of 2 hours free parking in more of Coalville's car parks. Any new periods of free parking should be applied consistently across the whole District.

"We also believe that there is scope for the new £2m Legacy Project Fund to be considerably larger. The Labour government's Fair Funding Review is providing significant addition resources to the council for capital projects in the run up to Local Government Reorganisation and the council needs to be investing this money now into local community projects across the whole district rather than hoarding it in reserves."

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