Minutes from the meeting 17/1/11

Minutes taken by Nina:

Southport Anti-Cuts Coalition meeting minutes

17 January 2011

Apologies were received from Sefton TUC’s Danny McGowan.

There was a brief introduction from people who had not been at the last meeting.

1.  Minutes from last meeting read and accepted

2.  A Treasurer was appointed. Celia Watson volunteered. She was proposed by Nina Killen, seconded by Paul Glendenning and voted through unanimously. The group agreed that Kat Sumner should be appointed chair and Nina Killen secretary.

3.  Nina sent a letter to Sefton council cheif executive Margaret Carney asking her to justify the way the council were making cuts. She has not had a reply but will chase it up. A letter was also written to the Southport Visiter but it was not published last week. The Southport Party petition to save the Botanic Gardens has received more than 3,000 signatures and the museum petition more than 500, taking it past the 2,500 necessary to get the council to consider it.

4.  Kat and Celia have designed a leaflet to give out prior to the 27 January demonstration outside Southport Town Hall. It will be A5 and can be given out to the public on the night and in the days leading up to it to raise the profile of the demo and the SACC. Nina will contact UNISON to see if the unions are organising their own demo for the meeting or if they could send people to support ours. We will meet at 5.30pm outside the town hall on Thursday 27 January. The leaflet was approved and a poster will be drawn up for people to put in their windows and ask local shops to display. It was suggested we email the poster to children’s centres to see if they would print it out and display it. Paul said he may also be able to make announcements about the group at Southport FC home games. Kat said she may be able to get a banner made at her own cost.

5.  A list of known Sefton Council cuts was read out which is available on the council website. It includes cuts to librarires, street cleaning, park maintenance, bowling greens, the LGA and grants for childcare provision. Councillors’ expenses/numbers not under threat. We will need to hold the council to account using the Localism Bill, which will devolve greater powers to councils. We discussed which cuts the group oppose – is it all cuts? Kat said it was up to individuals to decide what they support and what they oppose. Are we Sefton or Southport Anti-Cuts? We are Southport to give the town a group which represents the area specifically, but it is not exclusive of people or groups from other areas. It was proposed that the Visiter should follow a councillor for a week and a public sector worker to see what they actually do but Tom Bristow from the Visiter said that wasn’t feasible due to  a shortage of reporters. Paul Glendenning gave a brief outline of UKUncut, He said it was a loose coalition of people opposed to companies and individuals avoiding and evading tax. Kat pointed out that £75bn will be lost through tax evasion over the course of the current Parliament, almost equal to the £80bn in cuts the government wants to make. Locally we want the council to consult with the public rather than bulldozing through proposals.

6.  There was a debate about whether we should affiliate to the national movement The Coalition Of Resistance. It would cost £25 a year. Some felt it would take the group too far away from the local issues and would make it too political, but it was explained that the Coalition Of Resistance was an umbrella organisation with aims and ambitions similar to our own group’s, and that it was apolitical just like the SACC. It would provide support for our cuts protests rather than take our fight national, although it was felt that the national picture had to be taken into account along with the local and the two were not exclusive. The affiliation was voted through 13 for, 3 against and 4 undecided.

7.  Any other business: UKUncut are organising protests around the self-assesment deadline of Jan 31. Paul will organise an Uncut protest for Southport for Saturday 29 January but it would not be under the SACC banner. Celia is attending an education cuts meeting in Liverpool and will report back if there are any EMA cuts protests locally that we can support. 14 said they would attend the demo on 27 January.

8.  £25.21 was collected to pay for the Coalition of Resistance affiliation.

9.  The next meeting will be Monday 24 January 2011.