In may 2017 we received a mandate from Northumbrians to deliver a county that works for everyone. This week, in our first budget since taking control of the council we set a prudent budget that will deliver a better future for people all around our county.

The budget proposals the County Council has now agreed are based on a prudent and considered approach.

Our budget delivers on our key manifesto pledges. We abolished the previous administration’s unfair charges for young people travelling to post-16 education. We cemented into policy our commitment to spend £100 million on the county’s roads over our four year term. We ended the previous administration’s speculative, wasteful spending, and replaced it with the most ambitious capital programme the county has ever had.

We will be spending £588 million on investing in our county’s infrastructure, particularly in the county’s town centres. Instead of out of date shopping centres and football clubs, we will invest in renovating towns that are in desperate need of investment following four years of neglect.

We have set about plugging a budget deficit of £65 million inherited from the previous administration. The false promise of a dividend from Arch and millions of pounds of savings not made left the council at risk of financial collapse.

Finally, Active Northumberland, which suffered from mismanagement and serious failures in financial governance, could have bankrupted the service. This would have put hundreds of jobs at risk and meant the loss of the county’s leisure centres in key locations. We have stepped in with a rescue package of £2 million to protect the services we value.

The challenges have been great, but we have taken the action required to get our council back onto a stable footing. We have also set in motion a solid plan to deliver for Northumbrians a county that works for everyone.