Tuesday 3 February 2015

More cuts coming to Reading which will impact on all of us #rdgukcuts

Civic CentreTragically, Reading Borough Council has had its budget cut by tens of millions of pounds under the coalition government. This has had a very real impact on public services and people’s lives. Unfortunately more cuts are on the horizon.

The 2015/16 budget report will be going to the Policy Committee in February 2015 and then on to full Council later in the month to be debated and agreed. This report hasn’t been published yet but the scale of the cuts is still huge with another £25 million needing to be saved between 2015 and 2018.

Earlier in the year the council announced £8 million of cuts which will be in the coming budget.

The Green Party believes in standing up for the public services on which we all depend, especially the vulnerable and so we opposed cuts to adult social care and education which have already been proposed. We also believe in tackling pollution and climate change and so voted against cuts to the sustainability team.

Despite some posturing the reality is that both locally and nationally there is much agreement between Labour, the Conservatives and the Lib Dems. Labour have announced for example that they will be sticking to Conservative spending plans after the general election if they win.

In the run-up to the 2015/16 budget being published I will be reminding people of the cuts that have been voted through so far this year using Twitter and Facebook with the hashtag #rdgukcuts.

https://www.facebook.com/robforeast

http://twitter.com/cllrrobwhite

If you agree that the public have been abandoned by the old parties and it is only the Green Party that is offering a fair and sustainable alternative for the common good then why not get involved?

http://reading.greenparty.org.uk/get-involved/

In my experience the budget savings proposal wording is never that useful, but it gives you an idea of the cut. The full Policy committee report from September where £8 million worth of cuts were first announced can be found here, item 8 on the agenda, appendix 1 contains the specific cuts:

http://www.reading.gov.uk/meetings/details/3689/

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