Council cuts spark protest in Birmingham
Birmingham City Council's financial crisis and the subsequent cuts to services and rises in tax rates has lead to outrage amongst many across the region. Here today outside Victoria Square demonstrators have gathered to express their aggravation towards the authority.
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00:00 I'm here today as the Joint Branch Secretary of Birmingham Unison protesting about the
00:06 Council's proposal to cut £300 million in the budget.
00:10 We've already had over a billion pound cut from our budget over the last 10 years and
00:16 so we're really struggling to provide services that people need in Birmingham.
00:21 Another £300 million worth of cuts is completely unacceptable.
00:25 Things are going that we really do need.
00:27 City libraries for example, we've got 35 at the moment, they're talking of cutting that
00:31 down to 11.
00:33 It's really quite shocking.
00:34 We don't know quite what is proposed for next year but there's more cuts planned for next
00:39 year.
00:40 We could lose things like our leisure centres, our parks.
00:43 Everything that the Council provides is basically being looked at to cut and what we're saying
00:48 today is we want the Tories to fund the £1 billion they've taken from our budget.
00:53 So essentially this is a protest against the Council's decision to cut the budget which
00:58 harms the most vulnerable people of the society and on top of that they're trying to tax everyone
01:04 with through the poll tax, increasing the Council tax by 21%.
01:08 Meanwhile it is clear that the money is not spent in the best way because for example
01:13 they had this IT system that they created which was worth around £130 million and I
01:18 know some professionals who work in the IT industry.
01:21 There's no way that a simple programme that just keeps track of accounting and everything
01:25 is going to cost that much.
01:27 So in a way I just want to make sure that the Council is accountable of what they're
01:31 spending on rather than trying to find an excuse to tax the working people.
01:35 Following the issuance of the Section 114 notice last September, Birmingham City Council
01:40 saw the appointment of commissioners to address the financial challenges faced by the authority
01:46 in order to address the budget gap of more than £300 million over the next two years.
01:52 The decision was made to rise Council tax by 21% and make cuts to many services across
01:58 the region.
01:59 What do those demonstrating today believe should be done to address this gap?
02:04 Well the fact is that local government cuts year on year have been unsustainable for a
02:09 long time.
02:10 The general programme of austerity since the 2008 crash has been hurting local councils
02:18 really bad and I mean it's not just Birmingham that's going to be going under, other councils
02:22 have gone under this year and there's probably going to be quite a bit more go under.
02:28 Council leader John Cotton said in relation to the cuts we've got lots of investment coming
02:33 into the city, lots of people locating businesses and jobs here.
02:38 He insisted that conversations are needed around how we work together as a city as a
02:43 whole, not just the City Council, around protecting and supporting some of our cultural institutions.
02:50 He said those conversations have already started happening and that the Council needs to focus
02:55 on how it works in partnership and collaboration with others as it becomes a smaller organisation.
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