Tony Janio: We are reluctantly backing Labour's budget for the city

As a physics student, back in the seventies, I learnt how to programme a computer in the FORTRAN software language, but acknowledge that this does little to help me now – the world has moved on.

Most youngsters of school age will, of course, develop by absorbing information from their surroundings, without ever knowing that this is what they are doing, and be educated by an improving educational system, brought about by a combination of Conservative Government policy and the dedicated hard work of teachers.

This will produce a generation very well placed to take full advantage of their future with opportunities available that we can’t yet imagine.

The Brighton and Hove City Council budget is likely to be passed next week, without the usual unedifying spectacle of the three political parties scrapping like feral cats over a dead fish.

The local Conservatives will unenthusiastically vote for the budget, having fought for and secured an extra £460,000, to provide enhancement to youth services across the city.

Several residents have scolded me about my support for Labour’s 5.99 per cent increase in council tax, and have asked why I will be agreeing to this outrageous hike.

I said in committee last week that I do not support the Labour budget, as it is a chaotic mess of half-measures and confusion. It is a contorted muddle of economic mismanagement that lets the city down with its total lack of vision. So why vote for it?

There is a minority of children that will not, through no fault of their own, be able to ‘take full advantage of a future with opportunities available that we can’t yet imagine’, and they will require some extra support from the council to flourish.

This is why, having secured almost half a million pounds extra for the youth of our city, local Conservatives will reluctantly vote for the Labour budget.

Cllr Tony Janio is the leader of the Conservative Group on Brighton & Hove City Council.