Lincolnshire: Council rejects £1.5m cost of living plan

Labour councillors wanted £1.5m of £5m allocated for road repairs to go towards helping people with the cost of living crisis

A council has rejected a plan to spend £1.5m of a £5m "windfall" helping people with the cost of living.

Council bosses said all of the £5m, taken from a Lincolnshire County Council underspend of almost £31m, would be spent repairing roads.

Opposition Labour councillors wanted the cash to help people facing financial difficulties.

But the Conservatives said help is already available from a variety of sources.

A report to Lincolnshire County Council, covering its financial performance in 2021/22, set out recommendations following an underspend of £13.5m on council budgets and £17.2m on Schools.

Conservative council leader Martin Hill, said: "There is already a lot of support going to the cost of living issue that we've got at the moment."

Mr Hill said he thought it was right to put £5m into highways, "because we know that's one of the public's priorities and we know because of the drought situation a lot of our roads are splitting due to subsidence".

The Conservatives said help was already available to help people struggling financially

Labour councillor Phil Dilks said he thought it was a matter of "principal" and "priorities".

He said the money was "a windfall" which had not yet been spent and said £1.5m "should go to help people facing the cost of living pressures".

"Where do you think that the people of Lincolnshire who are facing these financial difficulties right now would want their money spending?" he asked.