HAMPSHIRE County Council leader Ken Thornber has told Petersfield Citizens' Advice Bureau (CAB) that he is challenging the government to confront the funding crisis which has resulted in the loss of its vital outreach home service. Earlier this month, the town's CAB was devastated to learn funding for its outreach service was to be axed from next March. The decision by Hampshire County Council means that more than 100 clients in the Petersfield area will not get visits in their own homes. Kirsty Stratton, the manager of the town's Heath Road-based CAB, said: "We have worked so hard to provide this and we regard it as the jewel in the crown of the CAB," she said. Mrs Stratton said the county council reported it was getting less funding from the government and that was why adult services had had debates about funding those with critical and substantial needs. She said: "But what are they doing about trying to get more funding from central government?" Mrs Stratton added that the main object of adult services was to support preventative care, saying: "But here they are taking away the main service that supports people in getting funding to help themselves." This week, in a letter to The Herald, Mr Thornber said: "Last Friday, I challenged the government to urgently confront the funding crisis in dealing with the country's mounting social care and waste bills in the wake of warnings from the Local Government Association, following the publication of the LGA's publication of their report 'Meeting the challenges ahead'." Clearly smarting from Mrs Stratton's remarks, he added: "I am also chairman of the County Councils Network, a special interest group within the LGA, and chairman of the Innovation Forum, a partnership between government and all top- performing councils with privileged access to ministers." Mr Thornber added: "I have regular meetings with the department for communities and local government, and only a few weeks ago was impressing on the minister, Ruth Kelly, these unremitting pressures which we face." He said the county council's spending on social care had increased by 67 per cent in the last six years and that it had to increase investment in front-line services to meet growing demand and increasing complexity of cases. "In the next five years, the population aged over 85 is expected to increase by 20 per cent compared with an overall population increase of three per cent," he said. "Likewise, over the 20-year period from 2001, the population of adults over 60 with learning disabilities is expected to increase by 36 per cent." Sending out a warning that council tax would have to rise further to meet the problem if it was not faced by the government, he told The Herald: "If it (central government) is not going to provide adequate levels of funding, it must say whether we are to cut services or put more on council tax – both options which Hampshire County Council believes are unacceptable and unwanted by Hampshire residents."
