The next three months will be a crucial time for Medway, for it is during this period that elected members will decide how to allocate pay for the services you all require.
The backcloth to this debate is as difficult as it has been since Medway was formed. This is certainly so for yours truly as finance portfolio holder.
The main consideration at the moment is how much of a settlement Medway will get from the government. If rumblings from Whitehall are any indication the signs are not good.
Looking back on the two Conservative budgets of 2001 and 2002 is encouraging. True, financial pressures have combined to cause an overspend last year and a projected overspend for this year, but with a wide enhancement of services throughout Medway it seems that the price is right.
During this two-year period the Conservatives have delivered services to an increasingly high standard. A top notch Ofsted report recognises that the delivery of education has never been better in Medway, whilst the award of Beacon Council status for the adoption service is a fitting accolade.
The introduction of a neighbourhood warden scheme—the Community Safety Team—is a new and popular initiative which will in time do much to alleviate many of the things which adversely affect the quality of people's lives in Medway.
Extra money spent of enforcement is complementary to this initiative and will have an increasing effect over the next few months.
A new waste contract has recently been put in place, with an extension of the wheely bin facility and new and demanding recycling targets included. There was the early reinstatement of a free bulky waste service after it had been removed by the penny-pinching previous administration.
These are all part of the campaign to clean up Medway that is at last beginning to have an effect.
Then there are the extra £100,000s spent on our library service, once again beginning to turn back the tide of years of underfunding and neglect. Whilst it was the Conservatives who provided that 20p concessionary bus fare.
There has been good progress over the last two years. The construction of the next budget will continue to make Medway a better place in which to live.