Further savage cuts!

Council leaders in Coventry say they need to save £61m over the next three years to help meet a budget shortfall. The council said the measures it was looking at included cutting £3m from its community services, including adult social care, libraries and wardens. Leaders at the Labour-run council also say council tax will increase by 2% next year. Previously they were also said to be cutting up to 800 jobs. Union officials said the cuts could potentially mean “Armageddon”.

Councils are beginning to determine our local services throughout the coming weeks. As well as further National cuts over the forthcoming years, Birmingham City Council has just announced £600 million of new cuts with the leader saying ”This is the end of local government as we have known it”. Surely yet another attack upon us all and the Pensioner Movement. Please attend our meetings and help to make a difference.

The number of job losses planned at councils in England and Wales because of Government spending cuts has increased to over 37,000 in recent weeks. The GMB union said 27 local authorities had announced or threatened staff losses, with many more set to follow suit as the scale of their budget cuts becomes known. Thousands of workers in Birmingham, Walsall, Croydon, Sheffield and Rhondda Cynon Taff faced having new terms and conditions imposed on them, while councils across the country were having to make huge savings over the next four years, the union added. And please remember only 76 percent of the current cuts have yet to be implemented. We need to plan for even more affective campaigns in the New Year. Happy Festivities!