CUTS CUTS CUTS – Protest, farce, tragedy
Tories live up their image as the ‘nasty’ party….. News from the front line….
North Somerset Council meeting 19th February 2008
Going to Council meetings is part of my learning curve as the new Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for North Somerset and this was quite a meeting. On the agenda for discussion was the budget and what the Tory run North Somerset Council plans to cut.
UNISON and a number of other groups including the Save the Portishead Open Air Swimming Pool group, had gathered outside to protest against the cuts which threaten a range of Council and volunteer services including Sports Development, Community Development and Day Care for the disabled and elderly.
One NSC worker, who asked me not to use her name for fear of losing her job, said “Morale has never been so low”. Now it does not take a rocket scientist to realise that people with low morale do not perform well, and for the Tory run NSC to have allowed this to happen is a poor reflection on their management acumen and their ability to empathise with their employees.
ITV were there to record the demo live for the six o’clock news, and as the crowd chanted slogans to keep warm and make their opinions known to the Councillors as they walked in to the hall, shouts also went up to cheer motorists who blew their horns in support. Earlier another motorist, in this case a Tory Councillor, angered the demonstrators as he pushed his Japanese 4X4 into the crowd to park at the front of the hall. No matter… it was used as a place to put placards by tired and cold hands.
Inside the Council Chambers the meeting started with a number of petitioners arguing their case against the cuts. The case was put for the ‘All Star Sports Club’ a group that helps adults with learning difficulties find self respect through sport, for the Community Sports Network which brings in sponsorship from Sport England, and will have difficulty doing this if its funding is cut. A very hoarse Lynette McMillan pleaded the case of the Community Development Team saying “These people help us access funding, please do not take away these workers, they are our voices!” Even the Police were speaking out against the cuts, with Inspector Adam Jenner speaking in favour of the Community Safety Team and the Child Partnership Group, and their involvement of young people in sport “stopping things from going wrong”. He said our concern is that budget cuts would kill or severely restrict the work the Child Safe Group can do”. Helen Thornton Chair of North Somerset UNISON and a community regeneration Officer for NSC said 100 jobs in NSC were under threat and that this will affect the most vulnerable in society. She could not understand why despite a more generous than expected budget allocation from Central Government, the NSC were set on cutting services just to keep the council tax increase down. This would mean a marked increase in charges for those needing day care and community meals while a whole range of children’s services would be affected, the cuts impacting on the poorest and most vulnerable in North Somerset.
Attack, it is said, is the best form of defence…. .and this seemed to be the approach taken by Nigel Ashton the leader of the Tory group on the council. He launched into a strange attack on the leadership of the Lib Dems in the previous administration….. and went on to say “at some stage someone will have to say enough is enough, we are doing that”. Well I’m sorry Mr. Ashton, but if you go on like that, it is the good people of North Somerset who will say “enough is enough” and they will vote you all out at the earliest opportunity!.... A line of Conservative councillors then stood up to say their piece and pledge their support for the cuts, with Cllr Blatchford seeming to say that Children’s services was something of a ‘black art’…. I’m not sure what he meant by that I must say…. Cllr Ian Peddlesden talked of “a challenging year in adult social services, identifying savings”. It seems his answer is to cut these service to the bone and then to be surprised when they won’t work….All in all a shameful line up to defend the un-defendable….
Cllr Tom Leimdorfer of the Green party, valiantly put the case for the opposition group, commending the Tories for their clarity but not for their content, which he generously described as “the good, the bad and the ugly”. He started by pointing out that of the last 9 budgets 7 had been presented by a Conservative member, and the 3 star rating that the Council currently holds was achieved on the basis of the work of the previous administration. He asked “How can we hope to improve the life chances of vulnerable children when we are cutting Educational psychology to the lowest level in the South West? And “how can we defend increases in day care charges that will mean those people who are only just above the threshold for full cost charges, are hammered with an extra bill of around £600 per year?” He pointed out that by making these cuts now NSC could also lose money from Central Government for reaching targets in the future, and that there was almost nothing in the budget to help NSC reach its environmental targets.
Deborah Yamanaka (Lib Dem) also echoed Tom’s points that the Tories were themselves part of previous administrations and the irony of Nigel Ashton’s attack on something of which he had himself been a leading member.
Andy Cole (Lib Dem), Deborah Yamanaka (Lib Dem) and Nan Kirsen (independent) also objected to charging for day care, Nan pointing out that the social contact provided by day care was a lifesaver to families trying to cope with disabled or elderly members, and that even if 40% of those receiving day care would not have to pay, 60% would. She pointed out that contingency funds of £900,000 were available so why not use some of this money to continue to support day care in North Somerset?
And so the opposition group’s amendments were presented and went to the vote.
Amendment 1 to restore £100,000 to education psychology and £50,000 to educational welfare, was lost by 12 votes to 40 despite an articulate and well thought through plea from Independent Councillor Hugh Gregor, who from his personal experience as a teacher described the educational welfare service as being a vital link between schools and home.
Amendment 2 to stop the increases in charges for day care, giving North Somerset the 2nd highest level of charges for day care in the Country. Lost by 13 votes to 40.
Amendment 3 to stop the cuts to sports development, defeated by 12 votes to 40, and this despite another intervention by Cllr Hugh Gregor who spoke movingly of the self confidence and sense of achievement that disabled participants received when participating in sport.
Finally Amendment 4 to reduce the Councils own carbon footprint, again defeated by 12 votes to 40, so much for the new ‘green’ Tories.
An interesting evening, though not an altogether pleasant one, the repeated twelve votes kept making me think of another twelve who broke bread together….. the 40? Well… ‘Ali Baba’ kept coming to mind…..