At tea time last night, Salford City Council workers and those affected by £24.5million cuts to be rubber stamped by a full Council meeting on Wednesday afternoon gathered outside Salford Civic Centre.
They had placards and they had letters to give to Labour Party Group councillors who were about to meet to discuss how they were going to play Wednesday's budget bashing session.
The problem for Salford Mayor Ian Stewart is that when he came to power in 2012 he kind of promised to protect the most vulnerable people in the city. Now, thanks to almost £100milion of ConDem Government cuts, he is attacking those very people he promised to protect. And those who come into contact with the vulnerable people - be they Council workers, carers, family or friends – have just about had enough.
Norma was handing out a leaflet to councillors about cuts to transport for special needs adults. It was headlined `Where Will This All End?'…
`All we ask to all the parties and Council is to listen to what we are saying…Stop the vote being passed to finish our transport for our special needs adults and our senior citizens. Stop them all from taking everything that our most needy have away from them…'
"They shouldn't be cutting these services to vulnerable people" Norma told the Salford Star "They've cut enough services now for people with disabilities and they need to look elsewhere because we're not putting up with it."
Stood near Norma were Care On Call workers, Jane and Stephanie. Care On Call is, what the Council calls, its `rapid response' or `Community Alarm' service, which, if the £600,000 cuts to their service go ahead, will have to be `self-financing' with charges for those vulnerable young, old and disabled people who use the service.
The letter that Jane and Stephanie were handing out to Labour councillors spelt out the work they do…
`We support over 4,000 older and vulnerable clients, sometimes dealing with life saving situations. Our service operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. It gives families peace of mind knowing there is always somebody there to help. Not all family, if any live around the corner, so having a pendant to press for Care On Call also gives the client peace of mind…'
"They want us to go self financing, so basically we've got to make up that £600,000 cut but they've given us no time" said Jane "Can our clients afford the charges? Some can, some can't and this is what we need to know…"
"…and obviously if they've not got a pendant they could be lay on the floor all night" added Stephanie.
Those from the Homeless Prevention Service were handing out a letter that appealed to the councillors' financial logic, if their emotional faculties were frozen…
`Salford Council is proposing to reduce their service to the homeless and those under threat of homelessness to just a statutory response. This proposal is set to cost the authority hundreds of thousands of pounds over the next few years, totally wiping out any savings that might be made in cutting these services now…
`The current cost to Salford Council to deal with a household that becomes homeless is approximately £9,000. The cost of tenancy support to prevent homelessness is £1,550…Not only do the cuts to these services make no financial sense they also have huge implications for the most vulnerable in our communities…No other local authority in the country is taking away their homelessness prevention services – they know it's false economy!'
Meanwhile, Nick and Gary, from the Council's Education Welfare department were worried, not only about job losses but also the long term affect of the cuts on the city's young people…
"I've been with the service for thirty odd years and seen it reduce from 22 people when I first started, to 11 now and a proposal to reduce it to four people just doing statutory work" said Nick "We get referrals for children who are out of education and not in school. If our service is done away with there wouldn't be anybody to actually chase that up.
"Salford has one of the most improved school attendances over the last five or six years in the country" he added "If that service is stopped, or vastly reduced, you only have to look at places like Manchester, where they've done away with the service, to see how their attendance figures have dropped significantly, well below Salford…"
"…We do a lot of work around getting children into school" added Gary "And obviously there's a significant link between school attendance and outcomes in general."
The Salford Star asked Steve and Richard from Welfare Rights and Debt Advice what they would like to see in the Council's budget…
"I'd like to see the vulnerable in the city protected but unfortunately I don't think we're going to see that" said Steve "I think we're going to see attacks on the vulnerable. One way this will express itself is that the Welfare Rights and Debt Advice Service is set to face a £350,000 cut, which is equivalent of 40% of our service. That, in essence, is the death knell of our service. We wouldn't survive. We would struggle on, becoming a failing service giving justification for it being cut.
"Yet we bring money into the city" he explained "We bring money to the most vulnerable people in the city…£10million for the poorest residents and the local economy, £100million over the last 27 years…"
"…That money goes into the pockets of people who have got nothing, basically" added Richard "On the one hand, for the budget this year they have found £230,000 from the health budget, but we've still got this £350,000 historic cut as well. It seems a bit daft that they're trying to save us with one thing but they still want to cut us from previous years…"
Indeed, the whole logic of the cuts is `daft' but incredibly tragic for those who need help the most.
"We're here because yet again in Salford we're faced with cuts that are going to impact vulnerable people to a greater extent than before" said Steve North, branch secretary of Salford City UNISON which organised the lobby.
"We need to remind these Labour councillors who their duties and responsibilities lie with and that's the people of this city" he added "Particularly the most vulnerable."
UNISON too had an open letter for the Salford City Mayor and councillors…
`We agree that the ConDem Coalition Government is using the financial crisis to attack public services" it stated "We know it is their rich friends' greed in the first place that caused this crisis and that attacking public sector jobs and services will only make the economy worse
`We cannot stand idly by and watch the government destroy our services and jobs' the letter explained, and, in a jibe to Ian Stewart and his petition mission to meet the Prime Minister, added `We know that visiting David Cameron will not get them to change course but only mass resistance.
`We believe it is our duty to make a stand for the vulnerable, the homeless, for those with mental health problems, for those with severe disabilities and their carers, for the elderly and many others that rely on public services… We ask you to stand with us and campaign for the people of Salford, their services and jobs…'
Councillors accepting the letters didn't appear to be accepting any responsibility for the cuts, one even shouting at campaigners to `Go take your protest to London'…
Salford City UNISON, together with other public sector trade unions, carers, families and community activists, have called for a demonstration against Salford Council cuts before Wednesday afternoon's full Council meeting when the budget will be rubber stamped…
Say No To Salford Council Cuts
Wednesday 26th February 1pm
Outside Salford Civic Centre, Chorley Road, Swinton.
For full details of all the Salford Council cuts see previous Salford Star articles – click here and click here and click here and click here and click here and click here and click here)
Main photo by Phil Hamer
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