A protest has been called by both Salford City UNISON and Salford Against The Cuts this Wednesday morning, 24th February, prior to a meeting of the full Council, where cuts of £22million will be rubber stamped.*
Salford UNISON recently passed a motion which noted that "the Unite Local Government NISC (the equivalent of the UNISON Local Government Service Group Executive) passed a motion on 7/1/15 calling on councils to use reserves and prudential borrowing to set a No Cuts budget."
Unite is the trade union that sponsors many local councillors, including City Mayor Ian Stewart. As a result, Salford UNISON is calling on "local authorities to set legal no cuts budgets, use reserves, capitalise eligible general fund expenditure and borrow prudentially to generate resources so that they need not make cuts" and to combine it with "a national campaign, linking councils, trade unions and communities in a fight against the Tories austerity programme".
A statement by Salford UNISON urges members to join the demo on Wednesday... "While we do still recognise that the fault lies with a Government that looks after rich authorities while hammering poorer ones, we are expecting Labour to stop simply passing on the pain to the people who elected them and the people who work for them."
Salford Against The Cuts has also called for the protest, arguing that "councillors should take up a real campaign for more resources: David Cameron has just found £300million down the back of a sofa for Tory authorities, including half a million for Tory Trafford and £2.8 million for leafy West Berkshire.
"If Labour councillors mounted a serious campaign alongside the other 120 Labour councils they could demand what they need to avoid a cuts budget" it adds "The Government couldn't find enough retired civil servants to replace them all. Councils acting in unison could force this government with its wafer-thin majority to back down. In the meantime they could continue to fund services using reserves, as 82% of councils already do, and borrowing powers, especially given the extremely low interest rates being charged currently.
"We would emphasise that such a course of action is not illegal and councillors no longer face the risk of being surcharged or banned from office" the statement explains "But if they want to fight to save services this is the only course of action open to them."
Minutes from the Salford Council Cabinet meeting of 10th February** show that Salford City Mayor, Ian Stewart, and co did discuss a no cuts budget but rejected it out of hand...
The minutes state: "Councillor Bill Hinds said the setting of an illegal budget was not a realistic option and would only create greater difficulties for the City. Similarly increasing unsupported borrowing beyond a certain level, would be irresponsible and not viable.
"The City Mayor said critics of the City Council's proposed Revenue Budget and
Capital Programme 2016/17 had failed to present any detailed alternatives, which
could be put to a vigorous scrutiny process, like those now presented had" the report adds "He reiterated the duty to set a legal budget. He added that the draft budget proposals had been drawn up in consultation with the community, council officers and political colleagues...every effort would be made to mitigate the impact of these [cuts] on the most vulnerable citizens of Salford."
Protest Against Salford Council Cuts
Wednesday 24th February from 8am
Civic Centre
Chorley Road
Swinton
Council meeting begins at 9:30am
*See also previous Salford Star article – Big Council Tax Rise and £22million cuts plus 138 jobs at risk – click here
*See also Unions No Cuts Message To Salford Council – click here
**Incredibly during the Cabinet meeting on the budget it was clear that at Wednesday's Council meeting councillors will be voting on a capital budget of over £65million with details missing from it on what the money is actually going to be spent on...
The Cabinet minutes state: "Councillor David Lancaster said although the proposed capital programme of £65.363M was agreed, the ability to determine and finalise the individual schemes and projects within this total remained to be decided."
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