At Policy & Resources Committee last night, Labour won support for its amendment to secure funding to explore schemes ranging from a Park & Ride to closing the attainment gap in education and clearing up litter and graffiti in the city.

The plans we won backing for included funding to explore a park and ride scheme, an electric vehicle car share scheme, cutting back the weeds that are suffocating the city, clearing up litter and graffiti, improving our parks, reviewing women’s safety, a cooperative care model, closing the attainment gap in education, a 20mph city and more.

In a No Overall Control-Council, it’s more crucial than ever to have a constructive opposition party that has its eye on the ball and is laser-focussed on delivering the Council’s corporate plan to deliver a fairer city with a sustainable future, and that is what Labour is doing. We will continue to work cross-party where possible to implement our popular and progressive policies.

Labour’s finance lead and co-leader, Cllr Carmen Appich said:

“While we agree that the bulk of this underspend should be utilised as recommended, we felt that we could set aside a small amount of additional funding to encourage the delivery of stalled projects within the corporate plan.

“Our plan means investing in a Park & Ride, an EV car share project, cutting back weeds (the bane of our city at the moment), tidy up teams, 20mph city, parks and more.

“We want to look at new projects too, such as reviewing women’s safety, exploring a cooperative model of care and supporting vulnerable residents post-settled status scheme.

“We are also keen to and to help address the very obvious education attainment gaps across our city which have been exacerbated by the impact of the pandemic.

“These are progressive policies that will improve outcomes for our residents and I am proud we have got these through.”