Bust up at the budget

5:00pm Thursday 14th February 2013 in News By David Wiles

Council leader Rod Bluh Council leader Rod Bluh

UNISON has branded Swindon Council’s proposed budget 'depressing and detrimental' – prompting the leader of the council to suggest the union is living in “some sort of Alice in Wonderland world”.

Bob Cretchley, the union’s Swindon branch chairman, has warned about the impact of the proposed job losses and spending cuts ahead of the full council meeting next Thursday to set the budget for 2013/14.

The Conservative administration’s final budget proposals aim to plug a £15million funding gap, which is due mainly to reduced Government income and increased cost pressures, including increased demand for services.

This includes £3.4m of savings from cutting about 100 council posts – up from the figure of slightly more than £2m in the draft proposals in December, when just 70 posts were threatened. Some of the posts are already vacant. The plans include a £200,000 saving through revising the bus subsidy strategy as part of the council’s plan to create a fully commercial bus network.

In a letter to councillors, Mr Cretchley writes: “Yet again the council is proposing a thoroughly depressing and detrimental budget which means another year of damaging cuts.

“This has an adverse effect on the local people including the most vulnerable and needy, on the local economy through reduced spending, and on your own staff.

“Unison has concern at the proposal for a ‘fully commercial bus network’ by withdrawing council subsidies. This will potentially hit those residents who depend on a comprehensive local bus network.”

He said by contrast the council had spent large sums for “political aims”, citing the £500,000 ballot of council house tenants over transfer to a housing association.

Coun Rod Bluh, the council leader, said his priority was to protect jobs and services.

He said: “What the unions are asking us to do is protect frontline services, protect jobs and increase pay.

“Unfortunately, I’m living in the real world, not some sort of Alice in Wonderland world. If they can tell me how they can do all these three things out of the declining budgets, I would be very pleased to hear it.”

Comments(13)

Tim Newroman says...
5:10pm Thu 14 Feb 13

A Union? Disagreeing with a Tory budget? I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING.

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1 2 Could B says...
5:35pm Thu 14 Feb 13

Phwoar!

Something for Olive to get his nose stuck into

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house on the hill says...
6:19pm Thu 14 Feb 13

For once I agree a bit with Rod. A lot of moans but no one seems to have any options of how the cuts are to be made. We all know that in our own lives no matter how much we may want to do something if we don't have the money we just can't do it. Lets see the details tomorrow of exactly what is what.

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Peter Mallinson says...
6:27pm Thu 14 Feb 13

Councils are there to provide services not jobs.

If a service can be carried out with fewer people involved then the money saved on reduced salary payments can be put towards more services.

There is a minimum number required to provide a service, this is called efficient use of resources.

As a high council tax payer I want to see my money used wisely.

Bob Cretchley has his job to do but it does not involve job reductions, far from it.

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LordAshOfTheBrake says...
6:31pm Thu 14 Feb 13

@House on the Hill

The problem is that there is an increasing number of people who can't accept going with out or having to wait; at a personal, local, national and international level.


The worlds markets needs a massive correction, but no one wants to blink first. As a result the tin cans get kicked further and further down the road making future problems worse.

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house on the hill says...
6:39pm Thu 14 Feb 13

Agree lord ash. As for the £500,000 spent on the housing ballot, that was to give the tenants the chance to save taking on a £70million debt, but the "activists" persuaded them against it and now the rents have to up to pay for it and a cut in improvements and building, so that actually was a good move but as usual the tenants didn't look at the bigger picture just their own blinkered views.

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Russell Holland says...
8:31pm Thu 14 Feb 13

On the housing ballot the actual costs were £284k.

All political parties supported a Council motion welcoming the ballot but there were different views about the subject matter of transfer itself.

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John Smith II says...
10:47pm Thu 14 Feb 13

Every time I see Coun. Bluh's grin on the SA website I can't help thinking of the money squandered on the 'wi-fi' project - when is this going to see the light of day? Do we think that the likes of 'ee' will deliver similar benefits through 4G first?

The 'white heat of technology', or another public sector b@lls up?

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LordAshOfTheBrake says...
8:26am Fri 15 Feb 13

Russell Holland wrote:
On the housing ballot the actual costs were £284k.

All political parties supported a Council motion welcoming the ballot but there were different views about the subject matter of transfer itself.
£284k just for a ballot on housing is ridiculous.

How many council houses are on the books? I thought it was something like 10,500 (http://keepourcounc
ilhomes.wordpress.co
m/2012/02/27/swindon
s-housing-crisis/).

You can work out the cost of the ballot per unit for yourselves!

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Even Angrier Monkey says...
9:19am Fri 15 Feb 13

Bluh has his faults but this says its all:
.
He said: “What the unions are asking us to do is protect frontline services, protect jobs and increase pay.
.
“Unfortunately, I’m living in the real world, not some sort of Alice in Wonderland world. If they can tell me how they can do all these three things out of the declining budgets, I would be very pleased to hear it.”

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A.Baron-Cohen says...
9:55am Fri 15 Feb 13

Swindon town budget is suffering from a reduced central government funding, shrinking local receipts (businesses going bust etc..) and increase demand on services (ageing population, social services etc...)
Mr Bluh is doing a good job at keeping this town going despite very tough conditions.
I do not see how or when Swindon will recover from this Depression, but in the meantime cuts are inevitable.
If the opposition has ideas to put on the table, let's have them.....

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Tim Newroman says...
10:45am Fri 15 Feb 13

house on the hill wrote:
For once I agree a bit with Rod. A lot of moans but no one seems to have any options of how the cuts are to be made. We all know that in our own lives no matter how much we may want to do something if we don't have the money we just can't do it. Lets see the details tomorrow of exactly what is what.
Absolutely agree. Some people don't seem to realise that there is NO MONEY. The nation is broke, councils are broke, largely due to the uncontrolled spend, spend, spend and borrow, borrow, borrow approach of the last Labour government.

When will people realise that the lunacy and delusion has come to and end?

The people who whinge about the 'cuts' (not that there have been any, the government are still borrowing and spending record amounts just to go backwards - thanks to interest payments) just don't get it.

Think of it this way, if you have a credit card with a £5000 limit and you've spent £4999, can you then rack up another £4999 on that card? No. You HAVE to stop spending, it's over, you're done.

On a national economic level, it's only going to get worse. Tax revenues are falling, can't think why, and yet spending is going up, particularly social security spending. And at the end of this year the Romanians and Bulgarians arrrive, all entitled to 'free' housing and benefits if they pretend to be self-employed (a claim which is impossible to disprove).

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A.Baron-Cohen says...
11:44am Fri 15 Feb 13

Tim Newroman wrote:
house on the hill wrote:
For once I agree a bit with Rod. A lot of moans but no one seems to have any options of how the cuts are to be made. We all know that in our own lives no matter how much we may want to do something if we don't have the money we just can't do it. Lets see the details tomorrow of exactly what is what.
Absolutely agree. Some people don't seem to realise that there is NO MONEY. The nation is broke, councils are broke, largely due to the uncontrolled spend, spend, spend and borrow, borrow, borrow approach of the last Labour government.

When will people realise that the lunacy and delusion has come to and end?

The people who whinge about the 'cuts' (not that there have been any, the government are still borrowing and spending record amounts just to go backwards - thanks to interest payments) just don't get it.

Think of it this way, if you have a credit card with a £5000 limit and you've spent £4999, can you then rack up another £4999 on that card? No. You HAVE to stop spending, it's over, you're done.

On a national economic level, it's only going to get worse. Tax revenues are falling, can't think why, and yet spending is going up, particularly social security spending. And at the end of this year the Romanians and Bulgarians arrrive, all entitled to 'free' housing and benefits if they pretend to be self-employed (a claim which is impossible to disprove).
The UK like the rest of the western economies have been in "Recession" for decades....
In 2008, the Recession didn't start, it was just impossible to mask the reality, which is that for decades living standards have been stagnating, only to be propped up by cheap borrowing and state handouts.
The current situation is not a crisis but a return to normal Western Capitalism.

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