THE CUTZ: this week in Bristol and Beyond ...
Michele Di Piedi | 17.12.2010 22:23
Another week of Tory crap
17 December 2010
[most links removed]
SHAMELESS PLUG
Venue magazine says Bristol Indymedia is the third best internet thing in the city. Considering Venue gave themselves the top award this ain’t bad going. Here’s what they say:
“Editorial policy has been tightened to block out the nutters and trolls and there's an implicit assumption that it's not neutral, it is oppositional. Now there's a lot of stuff worth reading on it (look out particularly for bristol_citizen's weekly 'Cutz' bulletin) and of course if you want to keep abreast of anti-cuts action, this is where to look. As the police regularly do.”
P R O T E S T
#UKUNCUT BRISTOL ACTION THIS SATURDAY
This Saturday 18 December - one of the busiest shopping days of the year - anti-cuts action against corporate tax dodgers in Bristol is planned as part of a national day of action. Meet in Broadmead at 12 noon before commencing a rolling picket of Bristol's high street tax dodgers. Invite as many people as possible.
#UKUNCUT BATH ACTION THIS SATURDAY
Meet at Pigeon Park in Lower Borough Walls at 11.30am on Saturday, then decide what form the protest will take.
TAUNTON DEMO AGAINST CUTS THIS SATURDAY
March and rally against the cuts, both national and local.
Saturday 18 December 2010, 10:30am.
French Weir Avenue, Taunton, Somerset TA1 1NW
Organised by Somerset County Unison and supported by the county’s trades councils.
Assemble French Weir Avenue 10.30am, march through Taunton to The Crescent from 11am.
BRISTOL UNI OCCUPATION LATEST
Students "dis-occupied" Senate House at the University of Bristol today.
BRISTOL EMA
Members of the Unison, UCU, NUS, NUT, Unite, GMB and ATL trade unions held a protest rally and demonstration on Monday at College Green, Bristol over plans to scrap the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA). The protest was held as part of a national day of action at further education and sixth form colleges in England.
BATH EMA
Students and college workers protested in Bath on Monday over the EMA cut. There was a protest outside the City of Bath College at 12.30.
GLOUCESTER LIBRARIES
Protesters picketed Gloucestershire County Council over the future of the library in Bishop's Cleeve this week.
THE DEAN
400 people attended an anti-cuts and Hands Off Our Forest public meeting in Cinderford on Friday 10 December.
ANARCHIST PICKET
Forest of Dean anarchists picketed the Dean's Tory MP, Mark Harper's offices on Friday 10 December. The police presence was described by protestors as 'large'.
HANDS OFF OUR FOREST RALLY
Monday 3 January 2011 at Speech House.
Meet Woodlands car park 12.30pm.
Rally in Speech House Field 1.00pm.
Guest speakers, music, cider, etc. More to be announced - watch this space.
Please try to be there and make this a huge show of strength.
COPS COP IT
Students in Bristol have blamed police tactics for the violence that erupted at DayX3 - the anti-fees protest - in London last week. At least 150 students from Bristol University and the University of the West of England were in London.
One student among two coach-loads of people from the University of the West of England (UWE) at the protest says, "The police strategy from the get-go was antagonistic and tarnished the whole day. People are talking about violence from the protesters but most of it was coming from the police to begin with. It was a response to being 'kettled' for about seven hours. I was in a crowd charged by mounted police officers in riot gear.
"If the police had been more open and calm, there would have been nowhere near as much violence. I'm not going to condemn the violence.”
MAIL READERS BACK STUDENTS!
In a poll on the paper's site, 68 per cent of Daily Mail readers supported the student violence at the DayX3 protests last week.
COPS ON CAMERA
Video footage of a police officer not wearing identification at DayX3 was recorded by Chris Dowdeswell from Gloucester and posted on YouTube. "When we questioned her - just before we started filming - she said: 'I'm a human being, not a fucking number'," he says. Dowdeswell runs the Brutal Cops website which draws attention to police corruption and violence.
FALSE ECONOMY
On the False Economy website you can list cuts information by your region.
http://falseeconomy.org.uk/cuts/south-west/all/t1
WHO’S GONNA RULE?
Veteran troublemaker and former editor of local radical freesheet 'The Bristolian', Ian Bone, has been musing on recent events. “The TUC must be shitting themselves,” he says. “They’re about to organise the biggest riot in our history!!!!”
Indeed the TUC ‘March for the alternative’ on 26 March 2011 is beginning to look like an unprecedented opportunity to bring down this government of toffs and spivs. Seize it.
E V E N T S
BENEFIT
It's the Bastard Squad Collective's nightmare before Christmas anti-cuts benefit. Saturday 18 December with WAR COMA, DEAD SUBVERTS, 2 SICK MONKEYS, YEAR OF THE FLOOD. Call 07521 788343 on the night for venue details. £5 on the door, 8pm start, benefit for printing "Against & Beyond" fanzine.
U N I O N S
FOLLOW THE MONEY ...
Unison announced on 8 December that it was setting up a £20 million fighting fund to combat government cuts to public services. Their National Executive Council ruling body has agreed to set aside £10m for national campaigning and to help regions and branches organise against job losses and service cuts. The money is on top of a further £10m available in the union’s industrial action fund.
AMBULANCE STRIKE?
Paramedics at Great Western Ambulance Service (GWAS), are being balloted for strike action amid concerns the health and safety of new shift patterns.
LABOUR MARKET PROFILE
November’s Nomis labour market profile for Bristol is out.
http://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/1/2038431894/report.pdf
B R I S T O L
COUNCIL CUTS ANNOUNCED
Bristol City Council will lose £15.7 million of government funding next year. This works out to be a cut of 3.64 per cent in the authority's "spending power" according to the government.
DAMN LIES
Paul Smith of Bristol Labour Party has blogged about the government's percentage calculations of local authority cuts. He says that Bristol's alleged cuts of 3.64 per cent are in fact cuts of 8.3 per cent.
SHORTSIGHTED
Bristol City Council’s yellow Tory leader Barbara Janke says her own government’s funding settlement for the authority is "short-sighted".
BRISTOL'S CUTS TIMETABLE
Bristol City Council's Resources Scrutiny Commission will be meeting on 5, 10, 12 and 14 January 2011, 6.00pm at the Council House to scrutinise the yellow Tories' budget proposals. The yellow Tory cabinet will meet on 27 January 2011 at 6.00pm to agree their budget. The council budget meeting will take place on 22 February 2011, 2.00pm in the Council House.
SOCIAL CARE
Bristol City Council officers have told councillors that £5.1 million in savings can be found in the adult social care budget “without impact on quality and volume of services”. Bristol's councillors seem to believe this nonsense.
SEVERN BEACH LINE
The future funding of Bristol's local Severn Beach Line train service is uncertain. Councillors say it is unclear how the service will be funded from the May 2011.
SITS VAC
There's no shortage of cash at Bristol City Council to throw at high-end executive posts. The council are currently seeking a Service Director: Strategic HR / Shared Transactional Services who will have to get by on £73,221 - £ 80,396 a year to "lead on strategic HR interventions" or sacking people as it's usually called. The council are also looking for a new Deputy Chief Executive to pay £120,620 - £130,909 a year.
To add to the money-no-object feel of the whole exercise, Bristol City Council are employing recruitment consultants from the Tribal Group to find the pair - despite having a policy not to use consultants any more to save money. Is it really that hard to find time-serving mediocrities prepared to take fat salaries for being accountable to no-one?
If you are interested in either post, contact Yvonne Skingle, Jon Houlihan or Julie Towers at Tribal on 0121 233 7700
RECRUITMENT CONSULTANTS
The House of Commons Public Administration Committee recently slammed the use of recruitment consultants in the public sector. "We have concerns about the use of recruitment consultants to identify potential candidates for public sector posts. A proper explanation of the role of such consultants and their fees and costs should be included in the scrutiny process," they said.
This came after the Permanent Secretary to the Home Office Sir David Normington was recently recruited by the "executive search boutique" company Saxton Bampfylde to become Commissioner for Public Appointments. Normington's main qualification for the role appearing to be his department's frequent use of "executive search boutique" company Saxton Bampfylde!
Can Bristol look forward to a couple of gross mediocrities being parachuted in from the other end of the country to earn top whack on the basis of their regular use of the Tribal Group then? Bristol's Chief Executive, Jan Ormonroyd, was recruited to her post by Tribal in 2007.
TARGETING THE VULNERABLE
Bristol University is closing its BSc Deaf Studies degree programme. This follows proposals from Bristol City Council to close their Elmfield School for the deaf
CORRECTION
Last week we wrote:
"Elmfield School for the deaf and those who have hearing difficulties will close. Bristol City Council have made the decision after an 'independent review' recommended closure. Instead the council wants to open "specialist resource bases" in the north and south of Bristol and have a base in a mainstream school."
This is not actually true; the independent review recommended the school is kept open, and the school was also rated highly in the Ofsted reports. The council have ignored it totally, probably hoping it'll go unnoticed. There's a petition to save the school and stop cuts in Deaf youth services; a campaign is gathering pace. For more info:
http://www.gopetition.com/petition/41309.html and also facebook:
These attacks follow those last May on the Centre for Deaf Studies, which is having to teach out it's BSc programme by 2013 with the loss of several jobs.
HITTING THE ELDERLY
Charity, Age UK Bristol, says two of its services will be cut if £45,000 worth of funding cannot be found. The charity's Link Up and Befriending Service will close in the new year while its service that provides help with tasks in the home and garden for older people is also under threat.
GREEN SPACE
Over 15,000 people have signed petitions to stop Bristol City Council's plan to sell of green spaces to raise cash. Not a single person has signed a petition in support.
LAW BREAKING
Bristol City Council has failed to respond to a Freedom of Information request asking for their financial appraisals of the land they're selling off under their Green Space Plan.
GREEN SPACE PLAN
Despite only raising £16m rather than the promised £90m, Bristol City Council's yellow Tories are continuing with their green space and park sell-off. This is also despite the fact the council is unable to even explain how they have valued the land they are selling for this alleged £16m. Most commentators believe they will in fact receive much less than this, rendering the whole process a useless waste of time and money. (Unless you're a property developer seeking cheap land).
POLICE CUTS
Policing Minister Nick Herbert has confirmed that the Avon and Somerset force will receive £192.60 million for 2011/12 and £180.2 million in 2012/13.
CUT THE COPS!
The Avon and Somerset Police Authority in Bristol are holding a series of “budget focus groups” - 'Your Police Your Voice' - so people can decide what should be cut. The police budget will be set in February 2011 and “the Your Police Your Voice consultation allows residents to play a real part in identifying their priorities and to shape the future of policing services,” says the police authority's chair Dr Peter Heffer.
FIRE
Avon Fire and Rescue Service's government grant has been cut by £2.3m. Managers have described this as "unfair". "Cutting £2.3m from our budget in a year will have a massive impact, and force us to look at all areas of the service," says Kevin Pearson, chief fire officer. However, whether he will now scrap plans to spend £1 million on a helicopter is unclear.
ACADEMIES
The Oasis Academy John Williams in Hengrove has withdrawn a claim that it had inherited a debt from Bristol City Council when it became an academy. They made the claim last month when they announced they would have to make some staff redundant to make savings. This raises the question of how the school, which moved in to new premises just three months ago, has run up the debt.
YELLOW TORY
Clifton's yellow Tory MP, cry baby Stephen Williams, abstained last week on the vote to treble tuition fees – despite having slammed his Labour predecessor for abstaining on a number of votes. Valerie Davey, the former Labour MP, abstained in Parliamentary votes on foundation hospitals, top up fees and the war in Iraq.
In January 2004 Williams said: "In the last 12 months tens of thousands of her constituents have been concerned about the war in Iraq, foundation hospitals and now top up fees. And Mrs Davey's response? Abstain, abstain, abstain. Not a very courageous stance. Bristol West needs an MP who can adequately represent the constituency and remain faithful to campaign promises."
RESIGN!
Yellow Tory Stephen Williams, the MP for Clifton, should resign and fight a by-election over student tuition fees says Darren Lewis, the acting chair of the Bristol West Labour Party. He says the MP “breached the trust” of voters by refusing to vote against the plans.
MORE FROM CRY BABY
The second longest suicide note in history? The yellow Tory Williams justifies his abstention - at great length - on his blog.
TAXIS
Taxi drivers in Bristol are trying to get the city council to impose a cap on the number of cabs operating in the city in order to protect their livliehoods. A statement from the drivers to the council says the current arrangements are having “a major, detrimental impact on our city not to mention a severe financial impact on existing drivers and operators, many of whom are now fighting for their very survival."
STADIUM
Bristol City FC’s plan to build a stadium on Bristol’s greenbelt received another blow this week when the SWRDA announced it was pulling a proposed grant of £3m out of the project. The RDA is to shut for business in March 2012 and all uncommitted monies have been pulled.
EXCLUSIVE?
"Pensioners in Bristol are furious that the cost of a hot lunch from the council-run Meals on Wheels service is going up by more than 30 per cent next month," reveals the Bristol Evening Post's Political Editor, Ian Onions in an EXCLUSIVE story. That'd be the same EXCLUSIVE story THE CUTZ ran over three weeks ago.
NO FIREWORKS
The fireworks display at Bristol's Harbour Festival has been scrapped as the council reveal they have a £100k budget shortfall for next year's event at present. The 'free' festival will now also end at 7.00pm and visitors will be encouraged to buy tickets for events at council-funded venues such as Watershed, Arnolfini and the new M-Shed museum for the evening.
COUNCIL OFFICERS FOR SALE
To make up their Harbour Festival cash shortfall, Bristol City Council are offering local business people access to senior council officers during the festival at "the new M Shed hospitality suite" in return for £1,000.
B A T H
CUTS
Bath and North East Somerset will lose £15.7 million of government funding next year. A 2.56 per cent reduction in spending power say the government.
FOSTER BRICKED!
A brick was put through the window of Bath's yellow Tory MP Don Foster’s constituency offices hours after he voted for the rise in tuition fees. He says, “I did sign a pre-election pledge on tuition fees and I signed it in good faith.”
YELLOW TORY HYPOCRITES
Yellow Tory councillors Nicholas Coombes and Armand Edwards are supporting Don Foster's stance on tuition fees. Both are recent graduates from the University of Bath and won the city's Bathwick ward in May 2007 thanks to a turnout among students of 25 per cent.
COLLAPSE?
Foster says voting against the rise in tuition fees could have sparked the collapse of the Coalition Government.
NEW OFFICES
Despite cuts, fashionable architects Aedas have been appointed to design a new office complex with shops and a library for Bath and North East Somerset Council in Keynsham.
S O U T H G L O U C E S T E R S H I R E
LOCAL AUTHORITY CUTS
South Gloucestershire will lose £5.1 million of government funding next year. A reduction of 2.37 per cent according to government figures.
N O R T H S O M E R S E T
LOCAL AUTHORITY CUTS
North Somerset will lose £4 million of government funding next year. A reduction of 2.32 per cent say the government.
MORE CUTS
The cuts at North Somerset Council will be deeper than expected after the government announcement. The authority, which is already facing making cuts of £42.4m over the next four years, was expecting a funding settlement of around £76.6m. It has now learnt that this grant been slashed by an extra £4.8m, to £71.2m.
LOCAL AUTHORITY
The proposal by North Somerset Council to cut spending by £42.4m over the next four years will delay the area's recovery from the recession says the union Unison. The council's executive meets next week to discuss how the council will reduce spending on services by 28 per cent.
SPORTS
Churchill Sports Centre in Somerset is to be privatised using a £1million sweetener from North Somerset Council.
G L O U C E S T E R S H I R E
POLICE
Gloucestershire Police Authority will receive £64.7 million in Home Office grants for the coming year. A reduction of nearly £3 million. Cuts over the next four years will amount to a 20 per cent cut in their budget in real terms with the main reductions coming in the first two years.
COMMISSIONING APPROACH
Cheltenham Borough Councillors have voted in favour of a 'commissioning approach' to delivering services. The decision paves the way for private companies and volunteers to take over local authority services. Culture and leisure services will be the first to be privatised. IT will also be looked at.
EMA
The principal of Gloucestershire College Greg Smith has criticised government plans to axe the Education Maintenanace Allwance (EMA), which he says will affect around half of his college's 3,000 students. He says the move targets people from the poorest backgrounds.
HEALTH
A Gloucester health professional employed in the NHS has written about their concerns that the service is being privatised with dire results for patients.
F O R E S T O F D E A N
THE LORDS
The Shadow Leader of the House of Lords, Baroness Royall, will table an amendment to the government's Public Bodies Bill calling for the Forest of Dean to be treated as a special case to stop its sell-off. A similar amendment was secured for the Dean in the 1981 Forestry Act.
LOCAL AUTHORITY
Residents of the Forest of Dean are being invited to have their say on the district council's plans to save £2.3 million over the next four years.
S O M E R S E T
LOCAL AUTHORITY CUTS
Somerset County Council Council will lose £7.2 million of government funding next year.
MENDIP
Management posts at Mendip district council will be slashed to cut costs by £2m in the next financial year. The corporate management team will be cut from nine to six staff while the next tier of management will be reduced from 26 to 11. 45 staff will be issued with 'at risk' notices for redundancy.
SEDGEMOOR
Bridgwater’s Sedgemoor District Council is cutting 100 staff to close its £1.4million funding gap.
C S R
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Local authorities funding settlements have been decided by the Department of Communities and Local Government. Details about your local authority are available here:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/localgovernment...1.xls
CRISIS INEVITABLE
It is almost inevitable that a public service "crisis" will occur in 2011 says local authority finance expert, Professor Tony Travers of the London School of Economics in the latest issue of Public Finance.
LIVERPOOL
Liverpool City Council will axe top managers to save more than £4.5 million a year. Forty eight senior posts are to be be cut.
SUFFOLK
Suffolk County Council is getting rid of its lollipop men and women to save £174,000 a year.
COASTGUARDS
The Department for Transport (DfT) is shutting up to half the UK's 19 coastguard stations. South Wales West yellow Tory Peter Black says he is concerned about what the changes could mean for the Bristol Channel.
SEARCH AND RESCUE SOLD
The Department for Transport is also selling off the country's search-and-rescue service, which has a helicopter base at RNAS Yeovilton in Somerset, to a foreign consortium. It will be "outsourced" to a French-American consortium in a £7 billion deal, spelling the end for the Royal Navy's fleet of 36 Sea King helicopters and their crews at Yeovilton.
E C O N O M Y
JOBLESS RECOVERY?
The number of people out of work in the UK has risen by 35,000 in the three months to October. There’s now over 2.5 million unemployed.
INFLATION UP
The Consumer Prices Index rose to 3.3% last month, up from 3.2%. The wider Retail Prices Index, which includes housing costs, also rose last month. hitting 4.7% in November, up from 4.5% in October.
STAGFLATION?
Unemployment up. Inflation up. There's a name for this.
UNCERTAINTY
Nigel Jump, chief economist at the South West Regional Development Agency, says that due to the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review the South West faces a period of economic uncertainty.
UTILITY PRICES UP
Npower's electricity bills will increase by an average of five per cent from January 4. This will amount to an increase of £54 on the average annual energy bill.
CONDEM SPLITS SHOWING
While business secretary Vince Cable is openly calling Treasury staff "thirties fiscal fundamentalists", Sir Gus O'Donnell, head of the home civil service, has told the Treasury to prepare contingency economic stimulus plans, including capital spending on infrastructure, for when economic growth falters next year.
B U S I N E S S
57 JOBS GO
More than two dozen workers at an electrical goods distribution firm will lose their jobs. 57 people working at the Wilts Wholesale Electrical Centre in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, have been given a statutory 30-day redundancy notice.
FROME
Braeside Joinery in Frome, which has been trading in the town for 20 years has closed with the loss of 20 jobs.
MORE REDUNDANCIES PLANNED
Half of the South West's business managers anticipate further redundancies in 2011.
S T U F F
Know about people, politics and policy in Bath, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire or beyond? Then contribute to CUTZ and help make it the regional leader for cuts news.
In a trade union? Know what’s happening in workplaces in the west? Write and tell us. Remember: silence and secrecy are the bosses’ weapons …
Any news about cuts in Bristol, Bath or beyond? Send stories, rants, gossip, informed speculation and the rest to Cutz, the brashest and best cuts news in the west: bristol_citizens@yahoo.co.uk
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THE CUTZ is now on Christmas holidays and will return in the New Year. Peace on Earth an' all that stuff to you all.
17 December 2010
[most links removed]
SHAMELESS PLUG
Venue magazine says Bristol Indymedia is the third best internet thing in the city. Considering Venue gave themselves the top award this ain’t bad going. Here’s what they say:
“Editorial policy has been tightened to block out the nutters and trolls and there's an implicit assumption that it's not neutral, it is oppositional. Now there's a lot of stuff worth reading on it (look out particularly for bristol_citizen's weekly 'Cutz' bulletin) and of course if you want to keep abreast of anti-cuts action, this is where to look. As the police regularly do.”
P R O T E S T
#UKUNCUT BRISTOL ACTION THIS SATURDAY
This Saturday 18 December - one of the busiest shopping days of the year - anti-cuts action against corporate tax dodgers in Bristol is planned as part of a national day of action. Meet in Broadmead at 12 noon before commencing a rolling picket of Bristol's high street tax dodgers. Invite as many people as possible.
#UKUNCUT BATH ACTION THIS SATURDAY
Meet at Pigeon Park in Lower Borough Walls at 11.30am on Saturday, then decide what form the protest will take.
TAUNTON DEMO AGAINST CUTS THIS SATURDAY
March and rally against the cuts, both national and local.
Saturday 18 December 2010, 10:30am.
French Weir Avenue, Taunton, Somerset TA1 1NW
Organised by Somerset County Unison and supported by the county’s trades councils.
Assemble French Weir Avenue 10.30am, march through Taunton to The Crescent from 11am.
BRISTOL UNI OCCUPATION LATEST
Students "dis-occupied" Senate House at the University of Bristol today.
BRISTOL EMA
Members of the Unison, UCU, NUS, NUT, Unite, GMB and ATL trade unions held a protest rally and demonstration on Monday at College Green, Bristol over plans to scrap the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA). The protest was held as part of a national day of action at further education and sixth form colleges in England.
BATH EMA
Students and college workers protested in Bath on Monday over the EMA cut. There was a protest outside the City of Bath College at 12.30.
GLOUCESTER LIBRARIES
Protesters picketed Gloucestershire County Council over the future of the library in Bishop's Cleeve this week.
THE DEAN
400 people attended an anti-cuts and Hands Off Our Forest public meeting in Cinderford on Friday 10 December.
ANARCHIST PICKET
Forest of Dean anarchists picketed the Dean's Tory MP, Mark Harper's offices on Friday 10 December. The police presence was described by protestors as 'large'.
HANDS OFF OUR FOREST RALLY
Monday 3 January 2011 at Speech House.
Meet Woodlands car park 12.30pm.
Rally in Speech House Field 1.00pm.
Guest speakers, music, cider, etc. More to be announced - watch this space.
Please try to be there and make this a huge show of strength.
COPS COP IT
Students in Bristol have blamed police tactics for the violence that erupted at DayX3 - the anti-fees protest - in London last week. At least 150 students from Bristol University and the University of the West of England were in London.
One student among two coach-loads of people from the University of the West of England (UWE) at the protest says, "The police strategy from the get-go was antagonistic and tarnished the whole day. People are talking about violence from the protesters but most of it was coming from the police to begin with. It was a response to being 'kettled' for about seven hours. I was in a crowd charged by mounted police officers in riot gear.
"If the police had been more open and calm, there would have been nowhere near as much violence. I'm not going to condemn the violence.”
MAIL READERS BACK STUDENTS!
In a poll on the paper's site, 68 per cent of Daily Mail readers supported the student violence at the DayX3 protests last week.
COPS ON CAMERA
Video footage of a police officer not wearing identification at DayX3 was recorded by Chris Dowdeswell from Gloucester and posted on YouTube. "When we questioned her - just before we started filming - she said: 'I'm a human being, not a fucking number'," he says. Dowdeswell runs the Brutal Cops website which draws attention to police corruption and violence.
FALSE ECONOMY
On the False Economy website you can list cuts information by your region.
http://falseeconomy.org.uk/cuts/south-west/all/t1
WHO’S GONNA RULE?
Veteran troublemaker and former editor of local radical freesheet 'The Bristolian', Ian Bone, has been musing on recent events. “The TUC must be shitting themselves,” he says. “They’re about to organise the biggest riot in our history!!!!”
Indeed the TUC ‘March for the alternative’ on 26 March 2011 is beginning to look like an unprecedented opportunity to bring down this government of toffs and spivs. Seize it.
E V E N T S
BENEFIT
It's the Bastard Squad Collective's nightmare before Christmas anti-cuts benefit. Saturday 18 December with WAR COMA, DEAD SUBVERTS, 2 SICK MONKEYS, YEAR OF THE FLOOD. Call 07521 788343 on the night for venue details. £5 on the door, 8pm start, benefit for printing "Against & Beyond" fanzine.
U N I O N S
FOLLOW THE MONEY ...
Unison announced on 8 December that it was setting up a £20 million fighting fund to combat government cuts to public services. Their National Executive Council ruling body has agreed to set aside £10m for national campaigning and to help regions and branches organise against job losses and service cuts. The money is on top of a further £10m available in the union’s industrial action fund.
AMBULANCE STRIKE?
Paramedics at Great Western Ambulance Service (GWAS), are being balloted for strike action amid concerns the health and safety of new shift patterns.
LABOUR MARKET PROFILE
November’s Nomis labour market profile for Bristol is out.
http://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/1/2038431894/report.pdf
B R I S T O L
COUNCIL CUTS ANNOUNCED
Bristol City Council will lose £15.7 million of government funding next year. This works out to be a cut of 3.64 per cent in the authority's "spending power" according to the government.
DAMN LIES
Paul Smith of Bristol Labour Party has blogged about the government's percentage calculations of local authority cuts. He says that Bristol's alleged cuts of 3.64 per cent are in fact cuts of 8.3 per cent.
SHORTSIGHTED
Bristol City Council’s yellow Tory leader Barbara Janke says her own government’s funding settlement for the authority is "short-sighted".
BRISTOL'S CUTS TIMETABLE
Bristol City Council's Resources Scrutiny Commission will be meeting on 5, 10, 12 and 14 January 2011, 6.00pm at the Council House to scrutinise the yellow Tories' budget proposals. The yellow Tory cabinet will meet on 27 January 2011 at 6.00pm to agree their budget. The council budget meeting will take place on 22 February 2011, 2.00pm in the Council House.
SOCIAL CARE
Bristol City Council officers have told councillors that £5.1 million in savings can be found in the adult social care budget “without impact on quality and volume of services”. Bristol's councillors seem to believe this nonsense.
SEVERN BEACH LINE
The future funding of Bristol's local Severn Beach Line train service is uncertain. Councillors say it is unclear how the service will be funded from the May 2011.
SITS VAC
There's no shortage of cash at Bristol City Council to throw at high-end executive posts. The council are currently seeking a Service Director: Strategic HR / Shared Transactional Services who will have to get by on £73,221 - £ 80,396 a year to "lead on strategic HR interventions" or sacking people as it's usually called. The council are also looking for a new Deputy Chief Executive to pay £120,620 - £130,909 a year.
To add to the money-no-object feel of the whole exercise, Bristol City Council are employing recruitment consultants from the Tribal Group to find the pair - despite having a policy not to use consultants any more to save money. Is it really that hard to find time-serving mediocrities prepared to take fat salaries for being accountable to no-one?
If you are interested in either post, contact Yvonne Skingle, Jon Houlihan or Julie Towers at Tribal on 0121 233 7700
RECRUITMENT CONSULTANTS
The House of Commons Public Administration Committee recently slammed the use of recruitment consultants in the public sector. "We have concerns about the use of recruitment consultants to identify potential candidates for public sector posts. A proper explanation of the role of such consultants and their fees and costs should be included in the scrutiny process," they said.
This came after the Permanent Secretary to the Home Office Sir David Normington was recently recruited by the "executive search boutique" company Saxton Bampfylde to become Commissioner for Public Appointments. Normington's main qualification for the role appearing to be his department's frequent use of "executive search boutique" company Saxton Bampfylde!
Can Bristol look forward to a couple of gross mediocrities being parachuted in from the other end of the country to earn top whack on the basis of their regular use of the Tribal Group then? Bristol's Chief Executive, Jan Ormonroyd, was recruited to her post by Tribal in 2007.
TARGETING THE VULNERABLE
Bristol University is closing its BSc Deaf Studies degree programme. This follows proposals from Bristol City Council to close their Elmfield School for the deaf
CORRECTION
Last week we wrote:
"Elmfield School for the deaf and those who have hearing difficulties will close. Bristol City Council have made the decision after an 'independent review' recommended closure. Instead the council wants to open "specialist resource bases" in the north and south of Bristol and have a base in a mainstream school."
This is not actually true; the independent review recommended the school is kept open, and the school was also rated highly in the Ofsted reports. The council have ignored it totally, probably hoping it'll go unnoticed. There's a petition to save the school and stop cuts in Deaf youth services; a campaign is gathering pace. For more info:
http://www.gopetition.com/petition/41309.html and also facebook:
These attacks follow those last May on the Centre for Deaf Studies, which is having to teach out it's BSc programme by 2013 with the loss of several jobs.
HITTING THE ELDERLY
Charity, Age UK Bristol, says two of its services will be cut if £45,000 worth of funding cannot be found. The charity's Link Up and Befriending Service will close in the new year while its service that provides help with tasks in the home and garden for older people is also under threat.
GREEN SPACE
Over 15,000 people have signed petitions to stop Bristol City Council's plan to sell of green spaces to raise cash. Not a single person has signed a petition in support.
LAW BREAKING
Bristol City Council has failed to respond to a Freedom of Information request asking for their financial appraisals of the land they're selling off under their Green Space Plan.
GREEN SPACE PLAN
Despite only raising £16m rather than the promised £90m, Bristol City Council's yellow Tories are continuing with their green space and park sell-off. This is also despite the fact the council is unable to even explain how they have valued the land they are selling for this alleged £16m. Most commentators believe they will in fact receive much less than this, rendering the whole process a useless waste of time and money. (Unless you're a property developer seeking cheap land).
POLICE CUTS
Policing Minister Nick Herbert has confirmed that the Avon and Somerset force will receive £192.60 million for 2011/12 and £180.2 million in 2012/13.
CUT THE COPS!
The Avon and Somerset Police Authority in Bristol are holding a series of “budget focus groups” - 'Your Police Your Voice' - so people can decide what should be cut. The police budget will be set in February 2011 and “the Your Police Your Voice consultation allows residents to play a real part in identifying their priorities and to shape the future of policing services,” says the police authority's chair Dr Peter Heffer.
FIRE
Avon Fire and Rescue Service's government grant has been cut by £2.3m. Managers have described this as "unfair". "Cutting £2.3m from our budget in a year will have a massive impact, and force us to look at all areas of the service," says Kevin Pearson, chief fire officer. However, whether he will now scrap plans to spend £1 million on a helicopter is unclear.
ACADEMIES
The Oasis Academy John Williams in Hengrove has withdrawn a claim that it had inherited a debt from Bristol City Council when it became an academy. They made the claim last month when they announced they would have to make some staff redundant to make savings. This raises the question of how the school, which moved in to new premises just three months ago, has run up the debt.
YELLOW TORY
Clifton's yellow Tory MP, cry baby Stephen Williams, abstained last week on the vote to treble tuition fees – despite having slammed his Labour predecessor for abstaining on a number of votes. Valerie Davey, the former Labour MP, abstained in Parliamentary votes on foundation hospitals, top up fees and the war in Iraq.
In January 2004 Williams said: "In the last 12 months tens of thousands of her constituents have been concerned about the war in Iraq, foundation hospitals and now top up fees. And Mrs Davey's response? Abstain, abstain, abstain. Not a very courageous stance. Bristol West needs an MP who can adequately represent the constituency and remain faithful to campaign promises."
RESIGN!
Yellow Tory Stephen Williams, the MP for Clifton, should resign and fight a by-election over student tuition fees says Darren Lewis, the acting chair of the Bristol West Labour Party. He says the MP “breached the trust” of voters by refusing to vote against the plans.
MORE FROM CRY BABY
The second longest suicide note in history? The yellow Tory Williams justifies his abstention - at great length - on his blog.
TAXIS
Taxi drivers in Bristol are trying to get the city council to impose a cap on the number of cabs operating in the city in order to protect their livliehoods. A statement from the drivers to the council says the current arrangements are having “a major, detrimental impact on our city not to mention a severe financial impact on existing drivers and operators, many of whom are now fighting for their very survival."
STADIUM
Bristol City FC’s plan to build a stadium on Bristol’s greenbelt received another blow this week when the SWRDA announced it was pulling a proposed grant of £3m out of the project. The RDA is to shut for business in March 2012 and all uncommitted monies have been pulled.
EXCLUSIVE?
"Pensioners in Bristol are furious that the cost of a hot lunch from the council-run Meals on Wheels service is going up by more than 30 per cent next month," reveals the Bristol Evening Post's Political Editor, Ian Onions in an EXCLUSIVE story. That'd be the same EXCLUSIVE story THE CUTZ ran over three weeks ago.
NO FIREWORKS
The fireworks display at Bristol's Harbour Festival has been scrapped as the council reveal they have a £100k budget shortfall for next year's event at present. The 'free' festival will now also end at 7.00pm and visitors will be encouraged to buy tickets for events at council-funded venues such as Watershed, Arnolfini and the new M-Shed museum for the evening.
COUNCIL OFFICERS FOR SALE
To make up their Harbour Festival cash shortfall, Bristol City Council are offering local business people access to senior council officers during the festival at "the new M Shed hospitality suite" in return for £1,000.
B A T H
CUTS
Bath and North East Somerset will lose £15.7 million of government funding next year. A 2.56 per cent reduction in spending power say the government.
FOSTER BRICKED!
A brick was put through the window of Bath's yellow Tory MP Don Foster’s constituency offices hours after he voted for the rise in tuition fees. He says, “I did sign a pre-election pledge on tuition fees and I signed it in good faith.”
YELLOW TORY HYPOCRITES
Yellow Tory councillors Nicholas Coombes and Armand Edwards are supporting Don Foster's stance on tuition fees. Both are recent graduates from the University of Bath and won the city's Bathwick ward in May 2007 thanks to a turnout among students of 25 per cent.
COLLAPSE?
Foster says voting against the rise in tuition fees could have sparked the collapse of the Coalition Government.
NEW OFFICES
Despite cuts, fashionable architects Aedas have been appointed to design a new office complex with shops and a library for Bath and North East Somerset Council in Keynsham.
S O U T H G L O U C E S T E R S H I R E
LOCAL AUTHORITY CUTS
South Gloucestershire will lose £5.1 million of government funding next year. A reduction of 2.37 per cent according to government figures.
N O R T H S O M E R S E T
LOCAL AUTHORITY CUTS
North Somerset will lose £4 million of government funding next year. A reduction of 2.32 per cent say the government.
MORE CUTS
The cuts at North Somerset Council will be deeper than expected after the government announcement. The authority, which is already facing making cuts of £42.4m over the next four years, was expecting a funding settlement of around £76.6m. It has now learnt that this grant been slashed by an extra £4.8m, to £71.2m.
LOCAL AUTHORITY
The proposal by North Somerset Council to cut spending by £42.4m over the next four years will delay the area's recovery from the recession says the union Unison. The council's executive meets next week to discuss how the council will reduce spending on services by 28 per cent.
SPORTS
Churchill Sports Centre in Somerset is to be privatised using a £1million sweetener from North Somerset Council.
G L O U C E S T E R S H I R E
POLICE
Gloucestershire Police Authority will receive £64.7 million in Home Office grants for the coming year. A reduction of nearly £3 million. Cuts over the next four years will amount to a 20 per cent cut in their budget in real terms with the main reductions coming in the first two years.
COMMISSIONING APPROACH
Cheltenham Borough Councillors have voted in favour of a 'commissioning approach' to delivering services. The decision paves the way for private companies and volunteers to take over local authority services. Culture and leisure services will be the first to be privatised. IT will also be looked at.
EMA
The principal of Gloucestershire College Greg Smith has criticised government plans to axe the Education Maintenanace Allwance (EMA), which he says will affect around half of his college's 3,000 students. He says the move targets people from the poorest backgrounds.
HEALTH
A Gloucester health professional employed in the NHS has written about their concerns that the service is being privatised with dire results for patients.
F O R E S T O F D E A N
THE LORDS
The Shadow Leader of the House of Lords, Baroness Royall, will table an amendment to the government's Public Bodies Bill calling for the Forest of Dean to be treated as a special case to stop its sell-off. A similar amendment was secured for the Dean in the 1981 Forestry Act.
LOCAL AUTHORITY
Residents of the Forest of Dean are being invited to have their say on the district council's plans to save £2.3 million over the next four years.
S O M E R S E T
LOCAL AUTHORITY CUTS
Somerset County Council Council will lose £7.2 million of government funding next year.
MENDIP
Management posts at Mendip district council will be slashed to cut costs by £2m in the next financial year. The corporate management team will be cut from nine to six staff while the next tier of management will be reduced from 26 to 11. 45 staff will be issued with 'at risk' notices for redundancy.
SEDGEMOOR
Bridgwater’s Sedgemoor District Council is cutting 100 staff to close its £1.4million funding gap.
C S R
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Local authorities funding settlements have been decided by the Department of Communities and Local Government. Details about your local authority are available here:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/localgovernment...1.xls
CRISIS INEVITABLE
It is almost inevitable that a public service "crisis" will occur in 2011 says local authority finance expert, Professor Tony Travers of the London School of Economics in the latest issue of Public Finance.
LIVERPOOL
Liverpool City Council will axe top managers to save more than £4.5 million a year. Forty eight senior posts are to be be cut.
SUFFOLK
Suffolk County Council is getting rid of its lollipop men and women to save £174,000 a year.
COASTGUARDS
The Department for Transport (DfT) is shutting up to half the UK's 19 coastguard stations. South Wales West yellow Tory Peter Black says he is concerned about what the changes could mean for the Bristol Channel.
SEARCH AND RESCUE SOLD
The Department for Transport is also selling off the country's search-and-rescue service, which has a helicopter base at RNAS Yeovilton in Somerset, to a foreign consortium. It will be "outsourced" to a French-American consortium in a £7 billion deal, spelling the end for the Royal Navy's fleet of 36 Sea King helicopters and their crews at Yeovilton.
E C O N O M Y
JOBLESS RECOVERY?
The number of people out of work in the UK has risen by 35,000 in the three months to October. There’s now over 2.5 million unemployed.
INFLATION UP
The Consumer Prices Index rose to 3.3% last month, up from 3.2%. The wider Retail Prices Index, which includes housing costs, also rose last month. hitting 4.7% in November, up from 4.5% in October.
STAGFLATION?
Unemployment up. Inflation up. There's a name for this.
UNCERTAINTY
Nigel Jump, chief economist at the South West Regional Development Agency, says that due to the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review the South West faces a period of economic uncertainty.
UTILITY PRICES UP
Npower's electricity bills will increase by an average of five per cent from January 4. This will amount to an increase of £54 on the average annual energy bill.
CONDEM SPLITS SHOWING
While business secretary Vince Cable is openly calling Treasury staff "thirties fiscal fundamentalists", Sir Gus O'Donnell, head of the home civil service, has told the Treasury to prepare contingency economic stimulus plans, including capital spending on infrastructure, for when economic growth falters next year.
B U S I N E S S
57 JOBS GO
More than two dozen workers at an electrical goods distribution firm will lose their jobs. 57 people working at the Wilts Wholesale Electrical Centre in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, have been given a statutory 30-day redundancy notice.
FROME
Braeside Joinery in Frome, which has been trading in the town for 20 years has closed with the loss of 20 jobs.
MORE REDUNDANCIES PLANNED
Half of the South West's business managers anticipate further redundancies in 2011.
S T U F F
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THE CUTZ is now on Christmas holidays and will return in the New Year. Peace on Earth an' all that stuff to you all.
Michele Di Piedi
Original article on IMC Bristol:
http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/702565
