NORMANTON, Arboretum, and Derwent are wards which, for most people, are the "choice of last resort", Derby City Council's Conservative opposition leader claimed on Wednesday night.
Councillor Philip Hickson made the comment as he argued for the authority to scrap its plans to change the way neighbourhood boards in each of the city's 17 wards are funded.
The boards are made up of community leaders, councillors and local service providers, like Derby Homes and the police, and spend their budgets on projects to benefit their communities.
At last night's cabinet meeting, a furious debate concluded with the council's Labour leadership agreeing to change the amount each board receives – £36,000 in 2012-13 – so the sums were "based on need".
Mr Hickson argued that the boards which had been most successful were those from which money was being taken away.
He had previously accused Labour of declaring a "class war", saying that the wards benefiting from the changes were those with Labour councillors.
At the meeting, he said the system used to decide the level of need – which the council says is based on household income, crime and anti-social behaviour, housing standards and child poverty – for each ward had been "discredited".
And Mr Hickson said that extra money for boards inArboretum, Derwent, and Normanton would not make a significant difference.
Mr Hickson said: "It's like pouring tea into a cup and it remaining empty. They remain chaotic and unmanageable. For most people, those wards are a choice of last resort."
He said millions had been ploughed into the Derwent ward with no "significant outcomes".
He said: "The reality of this proposal is that it's got nothing to do with fairness and everything to do with political malice."
After the meeting, Mr Hickson said "most people in Derby" would agree that ploughing millions into Arboretum, Normanton, and Derwent had not made a big difference.
But he said that neighbourhood boards in areas losing cash had been extremely popular with 70 to 100 people turning up to meetings.
He said those people would say "what's the point?" of their work now they would have smaller budgets.
Liberal Democrat leader Councillor Hilary Jones called the changes "electoral bribery", accusing it of being a postcode lottery "designed to prop up the Labour administration."
Labour councillors spoke of their outrage at Mr Hickson's comments, with the council's deputy leader, Ranjit Banwait, calling it a "shocking outburst".
He said he assumed that the "Tories wouldn't be fielding any candidates in those wards". Mr Banwait previously said the changes would be introduced in May.
He began the debate by saying it was a time for some communities to make "justified sacrifices and do their best to support those communities in our city that desperately need it".
He said it was a "complete absurdity" to suggest a "class war" and pointed to examples where the Labour party had helped better-off wards in the past, such as campaigning to keep open care homes.
Mr Hickson told the meeting his party would "call in" the neighbourhood budgets decision, meaning it would request it be referred back to the relevant scrutiny board.
chris.mallett@derbytelegraph.co.uk
