Three Liverpool opposition groups will come together to oppose the Labour group's budget plans in the first significant sign of a collaboration against the city's ruling party.
Labour and its leader Mayor Joanne Anderson will present its budget plans for the financial year at a full council meeting on March 1. Today the cabinet will sign off on those budget plans which row back on some of the tougher cuts that were first proposed last year.
But while a number of crucial services have been saved - including the benefits maximisation team - the budget plan will still see millions of pounds of discretionary payments for the most vulnerable cut.
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Savings of £1.1m will still be made through a reduction in the Liverpool Citizens Support Scheme, with the council looking to use government cash instead of its own to fund this area. .The city council will also seek to introduce a repair or replace scheme for replacement domestic appliances.
While opposition groups have welcomed the removal of some of the more painful proposed cuts, they are pushing for these other cuts to be removed from the budget.
In a significant sign of opposition co-operation, the leaders of the city's Green and Liberal parties and the deputy leader of the Community Independent group will present a joint budget motion at the crunch meeting next week.
Cllrs Tom Crone, Steve Radford and Alan Gibbons will stand together as they say the reject any proposals which cut services to the most vulnerable in the city. They will propose that the Citizen Support Scheme and domestic appliances reductions are removed from the budget plan.
The opposition parties say the cost of removing these cuts could be met with a reduction in the council's general reserves from £5.5m to £4.4m.
The opposition parties proposing this amendment said they acknowledge that in the first year these budget items would be covered by the government's Household Support Fund (HSF). However there is no plan to fund them after 23/24. They say their plan will see this vital support for residents is protected for future years.
The Liberal Democrats, Liverpool's main opposition party are not involved with the motion.
While the opposition motion is likely to be unsuccessful and be voted down by the Labour majority, it is a significant intervention just a few months before a crunch set of all out elections.
Liverpool's opposition parties don't have a great history of working together to take on a ruling group but there have been growing suggestions that some sort of electoral pact could be formed between some of those looking to take the fight to Labour after a difficult few years for the party in power. This could be seen by some as the first step towards a wider electoral move.
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