Yet more cuts imposed by the Tories and LibDems are hitting Newcastle hard.
Residents across the city are seeing the effects of years of cuts to Council services, with complaints about rubbish, litter and flytipping on the increase. Next year, as the Council’s budget is slashed even further by the Coalition Government, another £40m of cuts will have to be made, and Tory Chancellor George Osborne has announced that the cuts will continue for the foreseeable future.
Newcastle Labour has learned that the cuts this city faces are deeper than those elsewhere in the country, and ten times higher than those imposed on the Council in David Cameron’s constituency. If Newcastle had been treated fairly, the city would have had £38m more to spend on essential services like street cleaning, libraries and parks.
Labour Council leader Nick Forbes says: “We are doing everything we can to soften these cuts, but it’s getting more and more difficult. We’ve saved money by closing Council offices, moving staff into the Civic Centre, slashing Councillors’ allowances and reducing senior management in the Council. But the scale of the cuts we face next year means having to make even more extremely tough decisions. Our approach is to protect the most vulnerable people in our society – children at risk of violence or sexual abuse, adults with physical or learning disabilities, and older people who are really struggling to look after themselves. We think this is the morally right thing to do.”
Newcastle Labour is running a campaign to get the Government to think again about the unfair cuts being imposed on the city.
Please sign our ‘Enough is Enough’ petition to show the Tories and Lib Dems the strength of feeling against their cuts!