`I hear the same rubbish every year...' Salford's Labour and Conservative councillors
Outside Salford Civic Centre this morning, campaigners from Salford Against The Cuts and Salford City UNISON held a demonstration against the Labour Council which was due to make £22million cuts.*
"This is the fifth year in a row we've had to stand here as the Council is making budget cuts in Salford and we hear them saying the same things every year" said UNISON branch secretary Steven North "We hear `It's the Tories' fault, they're giving us less money', and it's true, we don't deny that...
"...But it's unfortunate that a Labour Council and Labour councils collectively throughout this country have not even been able to get together, to look around at what they can do about pooling reserves, pooling the ability to borrow money and working with trade unions to fight national campaigns against this government" he added "But all we get told year after year is that `It's not our fault, it's the Tories fault and therefore you shouldn't give us a hard time about it'...
He explained that the national position of the two biggest local government trade unions, UNISON and Unite is hardening against cuts...
"Our position is clear" he said "No compulsory redundancies, if members want to fight against loss of terms and conditions we'll fight with them. We will do what we need to do on behalf of our members to support them. What we have shown in previous years is that when we do stand together we might not be able to stop all of this but we are able to prevent the worst effects of it from impacting on people. There will be no free ride for anyone from this city who sits in that council chamber as far as this union branch is concerned and it does appear that message is growing stronger at a national level."
Inside the council chamber, as the Labour Party councillors blamed the Tory Government, and the Conservative Party councillors insisted that the cuts and `service transformation' would have come had the Labour Party got into power; it was the same old banter, as everyone agreed...
"I've been listening to the same rubbish by the Tories year after year" said Labour Councillor Lisa Stone, in response to the opposition's budget amendments...
..."And I also hear the same rubbish from the other side every year" Tory Leader Councillor Les Turner replied.
For the record, the Tories proposed amendments included making council staff take three days unpaid leave at Christmas and `renegotiating sickness entitlements', cutting facility time for elected trade union staff, a 2% pay increase for staff earning under £21,000, slashing fifteen management posts and cutting the grant to the Working Class Movement Library.
While councillors `debated' the amendments, it was the usual fake mud slinging, as, with Labour's massive majority the Tory proposals were always going to be voted into the bin.
Salford Mayor, Ian Stewart, gave almost the same speech as the last four years, talking of `hard decisions', the `outrageous' Tory Government cuts and his `very heavy heart' in proposing the £22million cuts. As if to underline the point, a series of glossy banners were hung inside the chamber and on the outer walls of the Civic Centre...
Executive Lead Member, Councillor Lisa Stone, spoke against the £1.8million cut by the Tory Government to Salford's public health grant, and the impact on jobs and services in Health Improvement, explaining how prevention work was crucial for the wellbeing of the city's residents and to offset overloading the NHS.
Outside the Civic Centre, a UNISON steward who joined the protest was unimpressed...
"Those councillors who talk to us are sympathetic, they say they understand but in reality we know these cuts are going to be passed anyway" he said "The services they are cutting are services that will save money in the future, like Health Improvement.
"To stop someone smoking might cost a couple of hundred pounds now but in years to come that's a hell of a lot cheaper than cancer treatment, or paying disability benefits because of the lifestyle choices people are making today" he explained "In twenty years time they are going to be costing the tax payers a hell of a lot of money, so the services they are proposing cutting now, in my mind are just saving up for a catastrophe in twenty years time. It's a bizarre philosophy
"I know there's different streams of money paying for different things" he added "But there's a bigger picture, where there's big businesses getting away with not paying millions of pounds in tax; a picture where Salford Reds have been propped up by the Council; where white elephants have come into the city like the stadium and the BBC that has not employed local people Didsbury has done well out of it, not the people of Salford necessarily.
"Now we're going to spend £19million on a garden centre and we're still cutting people's services" he said "I think that's criminal..."
The £22million cuts were duly passed by Salford Council.
For more details on the cuts see previous Salford Star article click here
* See also: Salford Council Tax To Rise by 3.75% - click here
Photos by Steven Speed
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