Minutes taken by Nina:
Southport Anti-Cuts Coalition inaugural meeting
10 January 2011
1. Introduction
The meeting began with each person in attendance introducing
themselves and giving a little detail about why they were there. There
were representatives from the Green Party, Southport Party, Labour,
UNISON, NASUWT, the student movement plus Alan Foxhall from the
Botanic Gardens.
2. Funding
The TUC had offered to provide funds to pay for a room, but many felt
that that would compromise the group’s independence. Some went as far
as to say they would refuse to be involved if the TUC were involved in
funding, To maintain independence it is important to fund ourselves.
It was thought a room in a Southport pub for a Monday would cost
around £20. At the next meeting a contribution of £1 or £2 per person
was suggested to meet the cost.
3. Ambitions of the group
Kat appealed for people within the group to keep her informed of cuts
that they were aware of. Plans are already being drawn up for
education redundancies, for example, even though education was
supposed to be ring-fenced. Alan Foxhall said there was never any
discussion with him or his staff with regards to how they might be
able to save money at the Botanic Gardens – they were just handed
their redundancy notices. Because they are planning to pay contractors
to grow the plants in future, has that cost been taken into account?
Alan felt we should be trying to make Southport look great in this
time of economic instability. The Southport Party have more than 4,000
signatures on their petition against the closure and they will present
this to the council meeting at Southport Town Hall on 27 January.
Other cuts mentioned were to bowling greens, lollipop ladies and the
Education Maintenance Allowance. We should hold our MP John Pugh to
account as well. It was suggested we write to the council to get them
to set out what services they are obliged by law to provide and hold
them to account over whether they are providing them. Nina Killen will
write a letter to the council leader Margaret Carney, to challenge her
about protecting public services and about councillors’ expenses.
Jonathon Allan from UNISON spoke about the council finances – he said
they was no surplus unlike with many other councils, and investments
they did make they were getting poor returns on after the banking
crisis. £27m of cuts have already been identified and in April 2010
many public servants agreed to a cut in terms and conditions.
Government-based grants were pulled straight after the general
election last May. 1,000 jobs could go at the council and perhaps a 5%
pay cut asked of remaining staff this year. The economic viability of
the area will suffer because there will be less money in people’s
pockets.
4. Next step
The group needs to give out leaflets to raise the profile of the
group, but this could be expensive unless a sympathetic printer is
found. Kat and Celia will design a leaflet this week. Posters to be put
up in local shops could be a cheaper way to spread the word. There
were some volunteers for handing out leaflets. Nina to keep in touch
with local press.
We should have a presence at the Council meeting on the 27th January to protest
about the Botanic Gardens closure.
5. Next meeting
January 17 at the Windmill Pub, Seabank Road, Southport at 8pm.
I felt the response was very encouraging. Almost thirty people attended and some good points were raised. The meeting went very well and despite there being a good mix of different views the discussions were all productive and respectful which I feel is very encouraging for the future of the group. I'd like to thank everybody for attending particularly those who had travelled from out of town or who had come after many years of feeling disaffected with local politics. I was pleased to see so many individuals there too. I hope you will all be involved at future meetings and bring other people!
This week, as is mentioned in the minutes I am going to write the leaflet with Celia. Also, the Agenda for the next meeting which will be published on here and handed out at the beginning of the meeting. Nina has written letters to the visiter and to Margaret Carney. The Visiter and the Formby Times will be featuring a write up of our first meeting this week too.
Keep sending information and perspectives to southportanticuts@hotmail.co.uk
Well done for organising this.
ReplyDeleteIm curious about the ambivalence towards the TUC at the meeting we organised in Bootle people were calling on it to do more, not less!
Good luck in any case and you should also be aware of this national event, http://www.tuc.org.uk/alltogetherfor/march.cfm?theme=alltogether
Danny
It is just because of the kinds of groups involved. Several people who attended expressed concerns about the ability of the group to retain independence if we allowed funding from any other organisation (not just TUC). Contributions being a different thing to actual structural involvement. The independence of the group allows several organisations to attend the meetings and contribute and we would lose those contributions if we had structural involvement from other groups.
ReplyDeleteI'm organising a founding statement for the next meeting. Basically SACC is intended to supplement rather than supplant actions of contributing groups and individuals. All information you can pass on will be appreciated and useful.
I'll add your link to the useful links!