No proposals to close Sure Start centres, claim councillors
Article published: Thursday, February 17th 2011
Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors once more traded accusations as “the most controversial budget in decades” was presented to the meeting of Manchester City Council’s Executive yesterday.
Laying out the plans, which will see council funding cut by £170m over two years and at least 2,000 redundancies, executive member for finance Councillor Bernard Priest said the budget was “the best possible in the circumstances.”
Responding to fears of the closure of Early Years Services he said there were no plans to shut down Sure Start children’s centres, but they are to be wholly contracted out to charities and other providers who are themselves facing severe funding cuts. Priest said the council would “build stronger
relationships” with voluntary groups but warned they would “have to become more efficient” in delivering services.
He conceded that cutbacks of £75 million and redundancies of 1,000 jobs had already been anticipated prior to the election. Yet while Priest argued the prior settlement was “sensible and fair” he condemned as “deliberately and ideologically driven” the harsher cuts from David Cameron’s government, which have had to be prepared within as little as three months preparation and are “front-loaded” so that savings cannot be gradually phased in.
Underlining public opposition to the cuts, campaigners presented Leese with artwork and letters from the children of Chapel Street
Primary School objecting to the planned closure of Levenshulme baths. Priest had earlier said that while the council would listen to their worries “a 25 per cent cut is not possible without some pain.”
In response Councillor Simon Wheale of the council’s Lib Dem opposition accused the ruling Labour group of creating “complete chaos” for political purposes, saying the announcement of the council’s redundancies on the same day as last month’s Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election was a “helpful announcement to the political cause of the Labour Party.”
Levenshulme Baths, threatened with closure
Wheale described council leader Sir Richard Leese’s vocal criticisms of service cuts in the national press as “Derek Hatton-style grandstanding,” drawing a somewhat incongruous comparison between Leese and the former Trotskyite head of Liverpool’s Labour council who gained fame for seeking confrontations with Margaret Thatcher’s government in the 1980s. He further claimed funding for up to 25 services across the city, including libraries, could be preserved for the cost of £465,000.
Leese shot back, saying “we’ve had to work with unreasonable timescales” in preparing the budget at short notice and added that the plans had been published on the internet in full so that “every Manchester resident can find the detail for themselves.” He further said Manchester faced a choice between “cheap populism” and targeting remaining services to ensure the elderly and “the most vulnerable families get our support.”
To this end a Manchester Investment Fund has been set up to “reduce poverty and dependence on benefits”, with the council hoping that other public services will also contribute. How “reducing dependency” will fare in the circumstances is unclear, with unemployment set to rise well into 2012 according to the most recent Labour Market Outlook authored by KPMG and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
The proposals were later rubber-stamped by the executive, although the final decision regarding the cuts is to be made at the full council meeting on Wednesday 9 March. Members of the public are being encouraged to email the council with their thoughts on the proposals, while others including Hulme Green Party are calling for “a series of public meetings for the organisations and communities affected.”
Richard Goulding
More: Manchester, News
Comments
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[…] While it is unclear what will happen to centres should no suitable providers be found, Council Finance Member Bernard Priest last week made assurances that there were no plans for the SureStart centres to be closed. […]
Pingback by MULE to appear on radio alongside Manchester City Council Leader Sir Richard Leese this afternoon — MULE on February 24, 2011 at 11:58 am -
The comparison of Leese to Deggsy Hatton can only make you laugh out loud, while at the same time illustrating the petty party political bickering which dominates at the Council. While nobody would want anything like the insidious Trotskyite’s antics in Manchester, if Leese had at least an ounce of his gall and stood up to the government rather than take the cuts lying down while attempting to score political points for Labour (e.g. the announcement of 2,000 job cuts the day of the Oldham bye-election) then the people of Manchester might have more respect for him.
Comment by Withingtonian on February 24, 2011 at 3:46 pm -
[…] include childcare, ‘early years’ education for children aged 0-5 and health and family support. While the council has denied it has plans to close any of the centres it currently intends for them to be wholly contracted out […]
Pingback by This Saturday: Parents campaign to protect Sure Start — MULE on February 24, 2011 at 9:29 pm
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