1,000 jobs Con-Dem-ned

LABOUR leaders claim Oldham Council will have to axe 1,000 jobs and cut services to save £40 million.

The authority is facing massive Government-imposed cuts on its budget and is bracing itself for the outcome of the Comprehensive Spending Review on October 20.

But council chiefs insist no budget proposals have been drawn up yet and accused Labour of upsetting staff in order to play party politics.

Local Labour leader Councillor Jim McMahon claims council officers have been instructed to find savings of up to £40 million over the next 18 months.

He believes the controlling Con-Dem council has provisionally accepted that 1,000 posts will be deleted in order to save money.

He said: “You cannot take such a huge amount of funding away and expect services to stay the same.

“The Con-Dem Government is being reckless with the borough’s economy and hitting vital services with these arbitrary cuts.

“Residents in Oldham can expect to see massive reductions in some areas and the complete removal of some services as the council battles to make the savings needed.”

With over a third of working people in Oldham employed in the public sector, cutting back on such a huge scale will hit the local economy and, with no manufacturing base to fall back on, it may take decades to recover, he warns.

Councillor McMahon also attacked Local Government Minister Eric Pickles, who has been speaking on how councils will have greater freedoms to make local choices.

Councillor McMahon claims that while Mr Pickles preaches about removing Government control from councils, he then tries to dictate to them about waste collections being made made weekly — but without consideration on how this would be funded.

“He also preaches about the high pay that senior officers receive, but does nothing to give councils protection in law against unfair dismissal cases,” said Councillor McMahon. “His ‘bull in a china shop’ approach is dishonest and rather than preaching he should be helping local councils to get through one of the worse budget reductions in history.”

Councillor Lynne Thompson, cabinet member for performance and value for public money, said: “We can neither confirm nor deny any details about the budget at this stage because Oldham Council is currently going through the proper process of quantifying the challenges and shaping our initial proposals.

“Staff and trade unions will be notified about these as soon as figures are finalised to start a consultation. It is unnecessary for the Labour Party to guess what the council needs to save. We published our estimates a year ago and have publicly worked on those figures ever since.

“The worst of it is that the Labour Party are indiscriminately upsetting all staff on the basis of their supposed guesses. That is opportunistic, self-serving party politics of the first order.”

Last year council chiefs said they needed to make cuts totalling £45 million over three years, including £10 million for this financial year (2010-11). It meant providing minimum levels of statutory services, closing buildings, and increasing charges. It followed a £21 million saving in the previous year, including over 400 job losses.




Warning of £40m council cuts



Labour leader Jim McMahon says: “Residents in Oldham can expect to see massive reductions in some areas and the complete removal of some services as the council battles to make the savings needed”



Cabinet member Lynne Thompson would neither confirm nor deny the claims but said: “The worst of it is that the Labour Party are indiscriminately upsetting all staff on the basis of their supposed guesses. That is opportunistic, self-serving party politics of the first order.”