Biggest-ever cuts are just the start

Oldham Council budget meeting

council leader Howard Sykes said sweeping £41million council cuts which will strip out layers of management and merge services were necessary and warned of more to come.

He promised long-term decisions to create solid foundations, but warned the next few years would see “many more millions” axed from the budget because of the “difficult, testing and unfair” settlement handed out to Oldham by the Government.

A total of 800 posts were originally affected, including 140 compulsory redundancies.

The Lib-Dem leader admitted his party did not have a monopoly on ideas to make the maelstrom of cuts and welcomed the £500,000 worth of savings plucked from Labour’s alternative budget, along with suggestions from the public which had sparked new investment.

But he did criticise the opposition budget for lacking vision and pride in the borough and for merely moving job losses from one department to another.

Councillor Sykes, who said he made job losses with a heavy heart, added that the last three years since Labour lost control of the council chamber had seen the end of a “dinosaur of a council” which was “politically and managerially directionless, overstaffed, inefficient and hopelessly out of touch with its citizens.”

Now, he said, there was a “dynamic can-do” council intent on preserving Oldham’s heritage and pride, with the cleanest streets in Greater Manchester, a £10million scheme to improve roads under way, a grip on efficiency which paved the way for a further £1million worth of savings in senior management and books that balance.

The coalition’s budget, he said, was about investing in the future, building on success and moving forward.

Labour party leader Councillor Jim McMahon hit out at cuts to a council workforce which had supported the borough for decades, along with plans to give their jobs to the public sector which was out to make a profit.

Labour councillor Phil Harrison said the cuts which axed £5million from adult social care were “disastrous” and the threat of job cuts had led to a culture of fear.

The only good news last night was that the council stuck to its pledge to keep council tax at last year’s levels.