Socialist Party Wales Socialism In Wales
Swansea Socialist Party members were again present in the public gallery to challenge the Labour Cabinet meeting which voted through a further round of cuts, increased service charges and an above inflation council tax rise, while at the same time claiming services had improved over the past 5 years, despite £70 million of cuts!
Attempting to put a positive spin on this year’s budget, the Cabinet report claimed that “£35 million was being added to the budget”.
It all sounds optimistic and exciting but it’s really a disingenuous statement from a desperate council.
What is really happening?
There has been a one-off Tory election bribe of £17 million put into this year’s council’s coffers, a 4.5% increase in the council tax (three times the rate of inflation) costing residents £8 million and another £10 million of ‘savings’ i.e., cuts!
Swansea residents will be dipping into their pockets once more because of the failure of the council to fight for the resources need to run the city off the Tories in Westminster and the Welsh-led Labour Government in Cardiff.
£40 million of projected cuts are planned over the next three years if the Tory Government doesn’t maintain this level of financial settlement to local government in Wales, an unlikely scenario considering the Welsh Assembly elections are due next year.
Burying your head in the sand and hoping against hope that the Tory leopards will change their spots is no strategy whatsoever.
‘Doing a Liverpool’, following the fighting example of Militant-led Liverpool City Council in the 1980’s that refused to implement Tory cuts, is increasingly becoming the only serious strategy to stop the destruction of council jobs and services.
In neighbouring Carmarthenshire council, the Unison branch has consistently led the demand for the council to set a legal ‘no cuts budget’ and now other local government trade union branches across Wales are starting to line up to support this call.
Join Swansea Trades Council lobby and protest at the full Council Meeting, from 4pm at Swansea Guildhall, Thursday, March 5th.
