Savage Cuts 'Need Not Be So Deep'

Tory reaction to Council's budget announcemet

''The savage cuts announced this week by the Labour administration at Ealing Council will hurt deeply the very things that residents say are important to them and which the council claim to be their priorities.

''Talk to any resident in the borough and they will tell you that they want their local area to be clean, free from graffiti and flytipping; they want their area to be safe; the local park to be properly looked after and for services for the most vulnerable in the community to be the best they can be. The Labour cuts makes a mockery of these concerns and the priorities that they set out just three months ago.

''Cuts to the environment budget will see funding for graffiti and flytipping drastically cut, the number of envirocrime officers who work in our local areas significantly reduced and the street cleansing monitoring team who ensure proper street cleansing standards are being delivered looks as if it will be abolished altogether.

''The additional 40 PCSOs funded by the Council to help keep our streets safe are also set to be abolished and the Park Rangers who look after and patrol our parks are to be reduced from 22 to just 9!

''In other areas we are seeing cuts to services for the most vulnerable - day centres being closed and cuts to child protection services which must raise concerns about the ability of the council to ensure that vulnerable children are properly safeguarded. Of course the Labour Leader of the Council is desperately telling anyone who will listen that these savage cuts are not his fault, but rather the Government's.

''Despite this, he cannot explain why he believes spending £3 million upgrading council computers, the £716,000 on electric car charging points and 'green roofs' or indeed the quarter of a million pound paid each year by the taxpayer to have full time trade union officials, are in some way a higher priority than keeping our streets clean, our children protected and our communities safer.

''The budget process is still at an early stage and I hope residents will make their views known on the proposed cuts before it is too late!"

Councillor Jason Stacey

Conservative Group Leader

19 November 2010