Stop the Cuts March:

Stop the Isle of Wight cuts: Islanders urged to attend public meeting

Thanks to UNISON for sponsoring this feature, in their own words.


The coalition government’s budget allocation for the Island has been reduced by a further £28m over the next three years. This is on top of more than £30m cuts imposed on the Isle of Wight by the Tory-led government supported by the Lib Dems since 2010.

The total cuts package being forced on the Council will amount to a further £6m in 2014/15 alone – with £14m on top next year and additional £8m in 2016/17.

All this will have a massive impact on services and jobs and will be a disaster for the Isle of Wight Community.

Public meeting
A public meeting hosted by UNISON will be held at the Riverside Centre, Newport at 7pm on Wednesday 5 February.

A big turnout is essential.

Please show your support for Island Public Services and attend this meeting. Speak up for Public Services and stop the cuts!

Council budget meeting
On 26 February the full Council will be considering a cuts package including:

  • Closing Medina Theatre
  • Shutting The Heights and Medina Leisure Centres
  • Ceasing to employ Road Crossing Patrols
  • Re-organising Youth services
  • Reducing maintenance of parks and gardens
  • Cutting back on key environmental monitoring work

These are only examples. Many other areas of service will be badly hit with more than 360 jobs to go over the next three years.

Our thanks to UNISON for sponsoring this feature. Please support them, as they and other businesses and organisations taking paid promotion enables you to continue reading OnTheWight for free.

Image: ajehals under CC BY 2.0

Advertisement
Subscribe
Email updates?
21 Comments
oldest
newest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Cllr Chris Whitehouse
3, February 2014 4:26 pm

Great news that Unison shares the determination of the Conservative Group of Isle of Wight Councillors to oppose an end to funding for all school crossing patrols.

We need to put childrens’ safety first.

Cllr Chris Whitehouse (Cons. Newport West)

Steve Goodman
Reply to  Cllr Chris Whitehouse
3, February 2014 5:44 pm

In a neighbourhood full of glass houses shouldn’t people think twice about inciting a stone throwing war? The island Conservative’s recent record of child care & education is shameful, resulted in central government intervention & transfer of control to Hampshire, and cost us a lot of money which should have been better used. And there’s good reason to debate just what our money should be used for… Read more »

Cynic
Reply to  Cllr Chris Whitehouse
3, February 2014 5:59 pm

Has not recent local court cases weakened the Tories claim about “needing to put childrens’ safety first” ?

Cllr Chris Whitehouse
Reply to  Cynic
3, February 2014 6:53 pm

Cicero, Do remember, that it was I personally who unseated David Whittaker simply because I was determined that the 5 local schools would for the first time have a member who could actually engage with them! To that end, I knocked personally on every door in the ward to explain to our local residents just how dire Whittaker had let things become. Also, Mr Goodman, the Conservative… Read more »

Cynic
Reply to  Cllr Chris Whitehouse
3, February 2014 7:01 pm

” I was determined that the 5 local schools would for the first time have a member who could actually engage with them”

Given the circumstances of your predecessor- perhaps an unfortunate turn of phrase, Chris? :-))

tryme
Reply to  Cynic
3, February 2014 7:08 pm

I hope you got that, Cicero, it was him, “personally”!

Cynic
Reply to  Cynic
3, February 2014 7:43 pm

@tryme I have no problem with that- it is refreshing to learn that candidates still knock on doors as I haven’t seen one since 2005! [Could it be because I told that one- who introduced herself as a titled lady- that I do not trust politicians and titles are an anachronism? :-)) I don’t even get visits from Jehovahs Witnesses or Mormons these days, maybe because I… Read more »

tryme
Reply to  Cllr Chris Whitehouse
3, February 2014 7:06 pm

And why should struggling individuals, families, older and disabled people’s lives be “put in jeopardy”, when big businesses and bankers have more than enough money to spare, so much so that they can donate £millions to the Tories!

tryme
Reply to  Cllr Chris Whitehouse
3, February 2014 8:25 pm

I should think D.Whittaker managed to unseat himself without any help at all.

phil jordan
Reply to  Cllr Chris Whitehouse
3, February 2014 11:09 pm

@c whitehouse: What you are suggesting regarding a TU representative is contrary to legislation. “Union representatives appointed by an independent union in workplaces where the union is recognised for collective bargaining purposes under the provisions of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 known as TULR(C)A.” …..defines that the representative has the right to: Paid time off to carry out their duties. Paid time off… Read more »

retired Hack
Reply to  phil jordan
3, February 2014 11:39 pm

People have been telling Cllr Whitehouse all day (as if he didn’t know perfectly well already), that his Unison suggestion breaks the law. So why did he make the ludicrous suggestion, why did he put words in poor Dave Stewart’s mouth, and why have the pair of them not yet withdrawn and apologised? For someone who appears to want to distance himself from the Pugh days, Whitehouse… Read more »

Robert Jones
Reply to  Cllr Chris Whitehouse
4, February 2014 10:07 am

Mr Whitehouse, you are flogging this poor old horse to death. You are not making a serious proposal, you are making a cheap party point – because you know, unless you’re considerably more stupid than I take you for – that you would have to change the law to achieve it. If you did achieve it – well, YOU couldn’t; this government is easily daft enough for… Read more »

derek
Reply to  Cllr Chris Whitehouse
4, February 2014 7:29 am

School Crossing Patrols, that is the issue!

derek
Reply to  derek
4, February 2014 9:31 am

Children’s safety.Not just a cheap shot at anybody else.

Robert Jones
Reply to  derek
4, February 2014 10:24 am

If school crossing patrols genuinely were the issue, this is a hamfistedly idiotic way of going about raising it. The truth seems to be that the present Conservative councillors do not have a serious proposal to save school crossing patrols – or anything else; they have no analysis to offer of the budget; the one proposal they have made can’t be achieved. I’m not sure that slashing… Read more »

derek
Reply to  derek
4, February 2014 10:57 am

This union thing distracts from the real issue, children’s safety!

bydaway
3, February 2014 7:42 pm

This article in the Guardian explains plenty about how the Tory led coalition are loading cuts on non Tory councils,while at the same time pandering to their richer pals in more affluent areas.. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/30/tories-cuts-poor-tax-rich

Rowan
4, February 2014 8:58 am

The crucial point is as Deborah Gardiner put it ‘total cuts package being forced on the Council’ – this is not the Council’s fault. I don’t think it’s fair, though, when she talks about ‘cuts imposed on the Isle of Wight by the Tory-led government supported by the Lib Dems since 2010’. The Liberal Democrats were put in an almost impossible position in 2010. They had three… Read more »

Cynic
Reply to  Rowan
4, February 2014 9:07 am

The LibDems have sacrificed all political integrity for the faint sniff of power.

It is amply demonstrated by their reneging on manifesto commitments and kowtowing to Cameron and Gove- possibly the worst Education Secretary since Thatcher!- and tripling university tuition fees.

Robert Jones
Reply to  Rowan
4, February 2014 9:57 am

This is the spin LibDems have put on it – ie, that they had no real choice in 2010 other than to join a ‘coalition’: but it isn’t a coalition, it’s a survival pact on the Tory side, and a leg-up into government for the first time since 1918 for the Liberals. There was another choice which Rowan doesn’t consider: to offer the party with the most… Read more »

Rowan
Reply to  Robert Jones
4, February 2014 10:37 am

I agree with you, Robert, that they could have done more good by not going into power with the Conservatives. I just think it helps to try to understand why they might have done what they did, and that there might have been reasons which they at least thought valid. All of us at some time or another do things which we know to be wrong. Some… Read more »

reCaptcha Error: grecaptcha is not defined