Well where do I start..........With the ConDem government making spending cuts to local government it was of course inevitable that there would be cuts in council expenditure however Derby City Council have embraced this with glee and relish, Derby suffered a 5.6% cut in funding which to be honest isn't much and could be easily achieved with a few minor savings but oohhhh no not our Beloved Leader Harvey Jennings he insists we need a refurb of council house of wait for this £40million, when it was pointed out that shelving this would make the necessary saving but noooooo jennings folly must be pursued.
So what do you cut to save 5.6%??? well first to go is Derby Industrial Museum that can go, regardless of the amount of visitors it receives and the start of Unesco World Heritage Trial and that to shut it could mean it looses the World Heritage status, still lets start on the £40million refurb ohhhhhh english heritage say that the refurb might be stopped as Council house is due to be listed building good old Harv aint letting that stop him he presses ahead.
Next to go school kitchens amazingly the day before a review of school kitchens the council amazingly has to close nearly all kitchens down due to health and safety......now they can implement the move they wanted too which is cook food in big central kitchen and reheat meals at school how nutritious for kids, but fly in the ointment is massive anger from parents, teachers, governors so idea is on hold while schools desperately scrabble to raise funds to get kitchens fit for purpose that way they can stop our Gracious Leader Jennings plan. this is still ongoing and at one school the children haven't had a hot meal for 12 weeks.
Onto next step sacking 639 workers now one reason for refurb of council house (remember that £40million) was to house staff as it was over crowded now call me silly but if you getting rid of 639 staff wont that free up space in building??? apparently not because the staff he is targeting aren't the managers, ohhh no its the street cleaners, toilet cleaners, gardeners, manual workers so we will keep the infrastructure and keep that fully staffed but they wont have any workers to admin, or manage. Another point previous Chief exec did a good job raised Derby's profile and promote the city but he retired so we get new chief exec how is on £40k a year more but straight away in job he was looking to axe services and staff. So he gets £40k a year more but heyho.
Next to get the axe flower beds and floral displays this saves £170K a year (council house refurb £40million in case you forgot) also means we lose glasshouses in Markeaton park these glass houses have a world wide reputation for producing excellent flowers (RHS even say so and are dismayed they are to close) this is a City that won City in Bloom just 3 years ago, this was announced just 5 days ago local paper ran poll 79% who voted were against the cut
Then the latest cut is the Tory favourite cut of all the plan to close all SureStart and Childrens centres in Derby I can just seeing him foaming at the mouth at the joy of closing them, these are really needed now more then ever with job cuts benefit cuts, they dont just do health issues but provide training for young mothers, while providing quality childcare they are the lifeline for some parents who will become isolated by this.
Final point to savour in last local elections Labour were the majority party that means Labour should have been in charge however Jennings cobbled together 3 independents and one other to become the leader of council, and the lib dems who belly ache about all the cuts have a pact of not voting in council votes, my hope is that on may 5th we get a large majority labour council who can stop these illogical cuts that to my mind are idealogical rather than out of necessity final point cut to budget by Government 5.6% cuts to services and staff 36% in one year, ohhh one other point is that they want disabled and vulnerable adults to pay for care a councillor when asked on local radio about this said we dont expect them to pay no we wouldn't want them to pay but we would like them to co-fund??????? errrrrr that means you want them to pay you just changed the phrase FFS
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