Earlier this month the Conservatives in charge at South Ribble published their budget.
Just days after congratulating themselves on a below inflation council tax, shock redundancies were announced -thought to be the first the council has had.
Ron Matthews who oversees the area committee system, Derek Frew head of information services and Jack Gregory, head of revenues and office support are all to lose their jobs.
There are also to be cuts to the number and format of the area committees -the public forums were local people can have their say on local issues.
In addition the funding of small grants to community groups and charities in the area is to be slashed by 50%. In the past such grants have gone to help scout, brownie and guide groups, playschemes, arts and sports groups, pensioners groups and village fetes.
Meanwhile the Mayor is being kitted out with new robes and new links added to the Mayoral chain at a cost of £750 for the robes and around £6500 for the links.
The Conservatives also took to the pages of the local media to bemoan the cost of free travel for pensioners and disabled people. They have suggested they may have a shortfall of £71,000 in funding the scheme.
This is all very different from the extravagant and uncosted pledges the Conservatives made at the local elections last year when they were desperate to regain power after many years in opposition.
They promised £35000 to RAWS to fund legal action which had little chance of being successful against the Farington Waste Plant yet now begrudge pensioners their free travel. They also implied a return to weekly waste collections in their election leaflets but have found it to be too expensive.
Councillor Matthew Tomlinson, leader of the Labour group at South Ribble criticised the budget as "unremarkable". He said that many who voted Conservative last May would be disappointed as many of the promises which were made have been broken.
He also described the cuts to funding for community groups and charities as "mean spirited" and reminded the Conservatives that they had inherited a council judged excellent by the Audit Commission -the achievement of the previous Labour and Liberal Democrat coalition.
After less than a year in control this does not seem excellent at all. As Councillor Tomlinson concluded his budget speech "is this it?!"
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