Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Protests against county council cuts

Notts IMC + Working Class Heroine | 27.02.2010 15:00 | Public sector cuts | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements

In the early hours of February 26th, Nottinghamshire County Council voted to endorse a controversial budget which will see jobs cut, care homes sold off to the private sector and the cost of services for the elderly and disabled increased. Campaigners opposed to the plans rallied in Mansfield and outside County Hall to show their anger at the proposals and council workers are currently being balloted for industrial action (but not a strike) against a related attack on terms and conditions.

The county council's programme of cuts comes in a political climate in which all the main political parties have expressed their belief in the need for cuts to public sectors in light of the economic damage wrought by the banking collapse and subsequent bailout. The Labour-run city council are also planning to cut staff as well as closing Victoria Baths along with libraries in Wilford and Beechdale.

On the newswire: County Hall budget protest: Report | Demo against council cuts: Thursday 25th | Notts council workers rally for jobs

Previous features: Local Government Workers in Notts Join National Strike | Public service workers out to protect pensions

Links: Fair Pay Action Group | GMB Notts General Branch | Notts County Unison



Campaigners are angry at the policy of cuts which is being produced by the new Tory administration which came into power in the elections last June. Cuts of £33m were announced in November last year. Among the proposals were the end of funding for Dial-a-ride and community transport regarded as essential by many disabled people and the elderly for whom these services are a vital safeguard of their independence. Council bosses also wanted to privatise all the council's care homes and increase the cost of day care services. Inevitably, there were also to be job cuts, with suggestions that as many as 1,400 jobs could be lost over three years.

In January, just before the end of the consultation, the council announced a set of modified proposals. Community transport was given a stay of execution and some of the steeper increases were reduced. Following the controversy which followed January's heavy snow, the council also decided to reverse its plans to cut the money spent on gritting roads. Unison were keen to present this as a victory, based on the suggestions they had made to the authority in an article in the Evening Post. Nevertheless, the council still proposed cutting £28.7m.

Inevitably, with a General Election around the corner, this has become a party political issue with Labour MPs jumping on the Tory-bashing bandwagon. The unions meanwhile appear to be unsure how to act. Despite a protest against an associated attack on terms and conditions in November and a high-profile media campaign they have only just decided to ballot their members on industrial action and are keen to emphasise that they are not considering strike action.

Notts IMC + Working Class Heroine

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech