Council cuts

Momentum

Rochdale Borough Council’s ‘Budget Challenge’ consultation has ended and Momentum, an anti-austerity group, says that the consultation afforded only one possible answer, to support the cuts. However, Momentum believes that councils do have a choice.

A spokesperson said: "The Tory government is determined to eliminate all local services through cuts and privatisation and have massively reduced the amount of money given to Rochdale Borough Council and we are calling on Labour councillors to fight these latest cuts.

"Stoke-on-Trent’s coalition council (controlled by Tories and Independents) has agreed to use £15m of its reserves to stave off making cuts over the next year. This shows that it is possible.

"Rochdale Borough Council could use just a portion of its £169.6m in useable reserves to avoid making the £37m worth of cuts over the next two years. Even the Government suggest that ‘local authorities lessen the impact of budget cuts by tapping into their huge reserve pots’.

"We call on the Labour group on Rochdale Borough Council to take these steps, whilst councillors go out into the communities, workplaces and trade union branches to build support for a no-cuts budget and have a genuine consultation with the people of Rochdale. They could then make an appeal to other Labour councils to do the same, making the Tory government’s savage cuts unworkable.

"Jeremy Corbyn said in his election campaign that councils should stand together against the cuts. This is the direction that the Labour Party must go in to end austerity and safeguard our public services."