‘Discredited austerity regime’

Stoke-on-Trent city council has been accused of “robbing Peter to pay Paul” over plans to axe about 250 jobs so that it can give a financial boost to children’s services.

Unite said the council, controlled by a coalition of Tories and City Independents, should reconsider the cuts, which are rooted in a“discredited austerity regime”.

The cuts’ proposal – to be considered by the full council on 17 October – comes in the wake of a report by Ofsted inspectors that was highly critical of the running of the authority’s children’s services.

Stoke council’s Labour group leader Mohammed Pervez said the crisis in children’s services has arisen because of funding cuts in the first place.

He said, “Hundreds of hard working and loyal council workers are now facing job losses as a direct result of the failings of the current administration. We should never have been put in this position. There are far too many children in care now.  

“This is because this council previously cut services that were supporting troubled families. Other similar local authorities have far fewer children in care. This is a council in severe financial crisis with no clear leadership. They are bankrupting our council.”

‘Financial cudgels’

Unite regional officer Mick Stevens said the proposed jobs losses are another example of the “adverse impact of nearly a decade of the Tories taking the financial cudgels to local government funding”.

“What we have here is a classic case of ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’. Cutting about 250 jobs from services across the council to give a much-needed improvement to children’s services should not be an ‘either or’ decision,” he said.

“I will be meeting Unite’s reps to discuss the proposals and I have asked for a meeting with Labour councillors regarding our serious concerns.

“It is clear that the staff are being betrayed by an unholy alliance of Tories and City Independents that believes in a discredited austerity regime with funding cuts being their Holy Grail.

“We don’t believe that the residents of Stoke-on-Trent are best served by this unpalatable diet of cuts and call on councillors to urgently reconsider the plans.”

Unite’s Community branch for Stoke has launched an online petition protesting the cuts that has already attracted more than 770 signatures and closes on 23 September.