Tonight, I was pleased to march with some of the users of Guinea Gap baths to the Town Hall. There was a meeting of the Council committee that oversees the work of the Cabinet Member for Culture and the Strategic Asset Review.
The march, and the demo outside, sent a very clear signal to those of us who were there (including councillors Bill Duffey, Chris Blakeley, Leah Fraser, Tony Pritchard, Sue Taylor, Simon Mountney, Paul Hayes, Karen Hayes and Lesley Rennie) about the strength of feeling against these cuts.
There were loads of people giving evidence and tempers were, naturally, rising at points. It didn’t help that the Council gave the impression of trying to hide the real number of people who will be losing their jobs. Of course, as Leah Fraser said, if you don’t know how many are going, how do you know how much you will be saving!
I was actually quite impressed that the Great Leader, Steve Foulkes, turned up and spoke. Sadly, none of his Cabinet seemed to want to follow suit.
At the end of the meeting, the vote was 4:3 in favour of the existing consultation arrangements – four Lab/Libs against three Conservatives. Democracy!
5 Comments
Seems greatly hypocritical of the Tory councillor John Hale to arrange this protest against closure of leisure services when a few weeks ago he was proposing we should be banned from the simplest of leisure pursuits, walking our dogs on the beaches, is this opportunism on the part of the Tories one may ask??
Kathy, in a word, NO!
‘I see Stephen Hesford MP (Wirral West) has come out against the cuts and Frank Field MP (Birkenhead) has come out in favour. No indication yet which way Angela Eagle MP is going…’
I see that even ‘allies’ can’t decide what to do between them…who is running our council….
When will people realise that ‘Labour’ isn’t for the working class anymore?? and that they are ruining our borough.
Frank Field…please – that guy argues with himself.
Stephen hesfo..who? He has been my ‘MP’ for the last number of years and I think that I have met him once – on my path, as he gave my a letter about a phone mast (saughall massie) – the letter was given out the day after it had been refused by planning! quality!
Worries me that my council tax goes towards funding a large plasma TV and the occassional jolly…
On another note but the shambolic theme…why not shut a few schools, the concourse, the beach, the marine lake(s), the cherry tree centre, the pyramids…I mean, its not like people use them…is it?
I rant – but its hard to see the woods for the trees when it comes to the labour (and friends, er…lib dems) council and their constant ‘conceptual’ view of a budget…
where I live, there are 42 flats – so thats an annual council tax bill of…~£42k and the way that they cut back on facilities, we will have the world’s most expensive street lamp. (because that’s all we will be getting for our cash!).
Hello Jamie. I don’t disagree but until the Labour and Lib Dems lose more seats, it ain’t gonna change. Having said that, at the next election, Saughall Massie will be in the Wallasey constituency, so whether Mr Hesford wins or loses, he won;t be your MP!
As Mr Hesford wont be my MP (and he was very lucky last time round – if only more people voted Esther would be in that seat!) perhaps I can hope that more people will vote based on opinion rather than the old scenario of ‘what that Thatcher did’ and we will get a conservative MP, with a strong team beneath her, who actually care about our community.
Come on Leah!