An interesting email dropped into our Inbox over the weekend from Bob Blocksidge, the UNITE delegate to Isle of Wight Trade Union Council. He told us of his recent experience attending the Isle of Wight Residents’ Panel-Community Conversations Meeting held on 25th September. We thought VB readers might be interested to hear what happened. Ed
I have a little story to tell you. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin.
It must have been a couple of months ago, that I received an unsolicited phone call, from someone at the Isle of Wight Council. They asked me to complete a phone survey, in which they asked me to prioritise Council departments and functions that could be cut.
They also asked me if I would consider sitting on a residence panel, in order to discuss the cuts in services to the community.
In completing the survey, I refused to acknowledge the necessity for any cuts in any services, but I was still invited to sit on the panel.
In a conversation with Tony Kelly, the Secretary of Ryde Trade Union Council, I found that he also had been invited to sit on the panel.
Cuts explained by Beynon
The panel was convened to meet on the 25th of September, and naturally we sat on the same table, along with two other people. There was six tables altogether, with a total of about thirty odd residents in attendance.
Steve Beynon, the Chief Executive of the Isle of Wight Council, chaired the meeting, and opened it by pointing out the array of information boards around the perimeter of the hall. The boards gave information about every aspect of Council expenditure and levels of the workforce over a number of years. He also used a pie chart, displayed on a screen, to explain the levels of cuts the council were going to implement
How to implement cuts, not whether to make them
It didn’t take long for me to realise, that the meeting was not to talk about an alternative to the Councils programme of cuts, but the most efficient way to implement them.
I challenged Steve Beynon to save money, by cutting the executives pay, which I stated was set at a ratio of 20 -1, between the lowest paid council worker and the executive branch of the Council. He retorted in reply, that it wasn’t 20-1. but 15-1.
Well if a Council worker is on £200 p.w. therefore £10,000 p.a., that makes an executive’s pay £3,000 p.w. and £156,000 p.a., a bit of a difference, I would say. Of course Steve Beynon, didn’t like my comments, so tried to keep me quiet, using the authority of the chairman’s role.
Each table gave their view
The meeting continued around each individual table, and after some time, each table nominated a spokesperson to air their views.
It soon became apparent, that the majority of the people there were from the “Blue Rinse Brigade” of the Tory Party, not a Lib-Dem in sight, or for that mater Labour, only us two (reds under the bed) trade unionists.
They seemed to take great delight in making the case for the most stringent cuts to all services, and even wanted means testing to ensure that no poor pleb had a spare £10 tucked under their mattress, before claiming any benefit.
The obvious was lost on the devolutionists
Devolution to the villages was high on the agenda, with individual hamlets running their own financial affairs. With a “Personal Budget” being given to people with learning difficulties, in order that they may choose the best service provider (if they are able), or maybe an expensive solicitor could do it for them.
What the devolutionists failed to grasp, was that the major conurbations of Ryde and Newport subsidise their lovely little hamlets. It is the mass of people, who when paying their Council Tax, pay for the bins to be emptied in the less populated areas.
Shouted down by Beynon
When I made the point that was no need for any cuts, and that it was the equivalent of taking out a loan for twenty five years and trying to pay it off in five years, I was shouted down, both by the Chief Executive and the “Blue Rinse Brigade” – they were most undisciplined and unruly in their conduct.
At the end of the meeting, each table was asked to give a resume of their thoughts on the programme of cuts in expenditure. When Tony Kelly started speaking, they started to shout him down.
He replied to them saying that they did not know how to conduct themselves and were a bunch of rabble, and to one person in particular, he asked him if he was a “Nazi”, which shut him up.
Was it really a ‘consultation’?
The meeting could be summed up as an exercise by the Council, where they could say that they have had consultation meetings with the residents of the Isle of Wight, and they agree with our cuts programme. Well, we didn’t.
I also informed the meeting about the rally to be held in Newport by the Health and Council workers on Wednesday last week, to oppose the cuts, and invited them to attend.
We made it absolutely clear, that we as Trade Unionists would oppose all cuts, and we would try to garner as much support for the fight against the cuts as we possibly could.
Bob Blocksidge
UNITE Delegate to Isle of Wight Trade Union Council
