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Blinkers off at Darlington Borough Council Date: 16/01/2010 Darlington Borough Council Labour cabinet at last took their head out of the sand and faced up to the realities of economic times. Their dispirite attempts to set a recovery budget were far to late and far too little. Conservatives have for the previous two years when budgets were planned advised Cabinet to take prudent cost cutting steps then to make it easier to budget in the difficult years ahead. Labour because of socialist dogma or simple resistance to change ignored this advice and now find they have to set a crisis budget in an election year. What a dilemma. So what do they do? they freeze council tax clearly an election gimmick but then have to reduce employee benefits, make 77 people redundant together with a raft of other low key measures to cut two and a half million out of their planned expenditure. Because they have reduced council tax and left reductions in spending too late , budget setting for future years will require even more robust fiscal constraints.  Hard times ahead!