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• Proposed tax 0.45% lower than Conservative administration of 2.9% - whilst also reversing many of their proposed mean and unnecessary cuts

• Increasing the Community Care budget by £82,000 including the addition of £25k to fund a home visiting scheme by the voluntary sector (e.g. Age Concern)

• Reducing cuts in social care teams and respite care and restoring the funding to the local arts

• Funding Wardens for Thatcham for a whole year, getting the project started without delay. The project is only currently funded for of the year by the Council which will mean delays getting the project off the ground.

• Restoring £7k of funding to the Summer Reading Challenge enjoyed by over 4,700 local children last year.

• Adding a budget to end the unfair £250 charge on residents needing mobile CCTV installed in their area to tackle antisocial behaviour and crime

• Reversing the proposed increased charge on trade waste which would only serve to encourage fly tipping and penalise responsible small business owners.

• Keeping the £10k Parents as First Teachers Pilot project in Mrs Bland's School, Burghfield. The project is a long term project which will reduce antisocial behaviour - its success must be evaluated before it is scrapped.

• Opposing the mean £20,000 cut to the meals on wheels service which will affect the elderly and vulnerable given them frozen instead of cooked meals

• Recognising the reality that the Waste PFI will now not start until January 2007 at the earliest - using money set aside for priority investments and a lower council tax.

• Inserting a £40,000 savings target in the Children & Young People's service. This is affordable for a service already benefiting from £366,000 of funding originally allocated to schools (Council savings strategy 2a & 2b)

• Raising the cost efficiencies required in Community Care and Housing by £20,000

• Add £25k Voluntary sector home visits (such as Age Concern) - expanding the existing service to further reduce social isolation and hospital admissions.

• Take only 3/4 of the proposed saving on agency budget meaning saving only £60k to the Tories £90k (additional cost £30k)

• Oppose the frozen meals cut before the scrutiny report has reported £20k saving removed (cost £20k)

• Take only 3 out of the 4 posts being cut in the Care Management Teams (cost 25k)

• Restore £12k of the cut to fund 2 more residential beds (officer advice was that 58 was the bare minimum and the LD's will fund 60)

• Add a £30k saving for a target to increase efficiencies from £25k to £55k

• Restore £10k to Mrs Blands Parents as First Teachers Scheme to prevent closure. Officer advice is that this invest to save pilot scheme started under the Lib Dems is “successful” and will have significant impact on a small number of families.

• Increase the Income target from 16k to 20k (net benefit +4k)

• Only take 3 of the 5 cuts in posts in care management schemes (cost £64k). Officer advice is that there is “some risk that supporting fewer children will increase risk of family breakdown and demand for high cost social care”

• Oppose all of the 40k cut to respite care. Officer advice is that “risk of family breakdown increases as support packages are reduced in number or size”

• Take only £16k of the proposed £32k cut in non staff savings against voluntary organisations (cost £16k). Officer advice is that there is a “potential risk to viability of smaller voluntary organisations providing services commissioned by the Council”

• Add an efficiency savings target of £40K (net addition of 40K), manageable when the Council is benefiting from £366,000 of funding originally allocated to schools

• Oppose the £9k cut in arts funding.

• Invest £33k to upgrade the Thatcham Warden scheme from being funded for only funded for 9 months to being funded for a whole year - enabling it to be set up straight away, avoiding delays.

• Oppose the £7k proposed cut to the popular summer reading challenge, enjoyed by 4776 children last year. .

• Invest £20k additional to the Clean & Green initiative to ensure the Council gets a full time officer, rather than a part time marketing exercise.

• Invest £2k to abolish the punitive and unfair £250 charges on residents for getting mobile CCTV erected to cut antisocial behaviour and crime in their neighbourhood.

• Work to a January `07 start date for the waste PFI investing £240k for the waste strategy provision to start in January, saving £530k for alternative investments and keeping Council Tax down. Alternative provision will be made in the reserves from the Strategic Risk Fund.

• Oppose the £5k trade waste tax being imposed by the Conservatives which will hit local small businesses and will increase fly tipping

• Oppose the £8k cut to the contribution to South East Berkshire Emergency Volunteers who gave considerable support to West Berkshire during the Purley floods.