Labour announced their council budget proposals last week. While Labour were quick to disguise their fingerprints in this year’s budget, the reality is that on top of £93 million cuts made in just three years, many services will not withstand another swing of the axe.
It comes against the backdrop of councils losing one in two pounds in real-terms funding since relentless Conservative government cuts began in 2010.
The real test of this budget is what political choices the Labour councillors make to balance the books locally and we must scrutinise some of their grim decisions.
These include
- huge cuts to sexual health services despite our city having some of the greatest numbers of sexually transmitted infections in the country
- fostering cut by 5 per cent despite the disproportionate number of children in care
- domestic violence services will be cut by £50,000 in a city with almost 5,000 domestic violence incidents and crimes in 2016-17
Conservative-led West Sussex County Council recently tried to decimate domestic violence services and we are appalled that Labour appears to be following suit at Brighton and Hove City Council.
The size of the cut to the libraries budget has convinced many that this is Labour’s “Trojan horse” to try to close Hove Library. Again.
Cuts to services that were in the firing line last year – such as family support at the Clermont centre – are back on the table.
Quickly a picture is painted that it is the most marginalised in our city who face the heaviest repercussions from this budget.
Green councillors will try to reverse some of the budget’s worst elements.
Again we find ourselves campaigning for a budget approach that “prevention is better than cure” – as the lesson has yet to be learnt.
Residents reliant on local services will pay the price for the dreadful austerity experiment and this is where the budget proposals fall short of the different approach needed.
As well as challenging the council leadership for failing to act for the most vulnerable, we will continue to push the Labour council to put the evidence about prioritising preventative services ahead of their concerns about making savings in this year’s budget.
Councillor Phélilm Mac Cafferty is the convenor of the Green group on Brighton and Hove City Council.
What i would like a Politician to tell me is if we didnt have these cuts introduced since the Cons came in, where has the money gone or were we going to have to borrow even more to make up the shortfall?