SACC are pleased to announce that we have confirmed a public meeting with Council Chief Executive Margaret Carney. A background can be found on the Sefton MBC website here.
We have now confirmed that the venue will be The Royal Clifton Hotel on the Promenade Southport.
The meeting is designed to facilitate public consultation, as you may imagine with feelings running high it is necessary to structure the meeting so that it will be productive for everyone who attends. For this reason we are requesting that people submit their questions in advance of the meeting. There will be a right of reply but no shouting out. This is to give Ms Carney an opportunity to give considered and relevant answers but also make sure that the meeting isn't taken over by any particularly vocal or passionate groups and as many people as possible are able to have input.
The meeting is scheduled for 15th February 2011 and will begin at 8pm and run until 9.30pm.
The final date for submissions is 11th February 2011.
If you want to attend the meeting it will be necessary to have a ticket so that we are able to judge the numbers of people attending and manage the meeting safely. The tickets cost £2 - this will be specifically to cover the cost of the venue and will not be funding our group or our contributors in anyway.
If there is a surplus in collections for tickets the extra will be shared between Sefton Women's and Children's Aid and Parenting 2000.
If you would like to submit a question (and/or read it at the meeting) please e-mail - southportanticuts@hotmail.co.uk with "Question 15/2/11" in the subject box
Alternatively you can post one to:
19 Gordon Street,
Southport,
PR9 0BG
Remember to leave your contact details too.
If you would like a ticket please call; 01704 531613 or email; southportanticuts@hotmail.co.uk there are a good number of tickets available but these are likely to sell out fast. Anyone from Sefton is welcome, not just people from Southport.
Monday, 31 January 2011
Demonstrations against the cuts.
In addition to the march organised by "Save Our Children's Centres" a demonstration was held outside Southport Town Hall on Thursday Evening - targeting the Full Council meeting.
Blyth and I were out in the (cold) morning with the SACC banner handing out leaflets to the councillors as they arrived for the Cabinet Meeting and to passers by. We seemed to be very well recieved and several people came back in the evening for the protest.
The demonstration in the evening was well attended and made local and national news on Granada Reports and Daybreak. There are some pictures, videos and a write up on Southport forums and it made the front page of the local papers.
The Southport Forums page reports:
"At the Council meeting held at Southport Town Hall on 27th Jan 2011 it was decided that 7 Centre based Youth Clubs would be closed. The clubs affected are Stanley, Meols Cop, Birkdale, Formby, Maghull, Crosby and Aintree. That mens that there is no Youth Service facility until you get to Bootle.
The Labour Party proposed useing "one off funding" to keep them open for a further 12 months. This was voted down by the combined vote of the Conservatives and Lib Dems. The 2 exceptions to this were Cllr Lord Fearn and Cllr Anne Ibbs from Formby. Lord Fearn spoke strongly about how valuable this service was and the huge loss it would be if it was withdrawn.
Cllr Weavers and Cllr Sumner absented themselves from the debate as they declared that they had an interest, in that they sat on the Management Committee of Meols Cop Youth Club. This line of arguement was thrown into doubt however by the presence of the Lib Dem leader Tony Robertson who himself took part in the debate, voted and who himself is a member of a Youth Club Committee.
The Duke of Edinburgh scheme provided by the Youth Service was also axed.
Other services that were cut that affect Southport are as follows
Southport YMCA £50,000 CUT
Parenting 2000 £57,000 CUT
Sefton Women &
Chidrens Aid £49,900 CUT
KGV Gym
Club £7,595 CUT
11th Southport
Scouts £1008 CUT
Kew Woods
Home Start £2000 CUT
Sefton CVS £2,131,207 CUT
Sefton CAB £169,858 CUT"
UKUncut were undeterred from their peaceful anti-tax avoidance protest on Sunday. Despite police outnumbering protestors 4 to 1 and some would be protestors being frightened off the peaceful protest bravely went ahead. The protestors were highlighting Boots' Swiss PO Box scam which allows them to avoid £86m in tax each year. Boots, as a provider of private health care in the UK also stands to benefit from the NHS Bill which sees a shift towards "competitiveness"within the NHS - another way of saying that services are going to be outsourced to private companies. If in any doubt about the effect of doing this with healthcare you just need to look at what happened when hospital cleaning was outsourced - MRSA and C. Difficile. We don't want the cheapest service provider, we want the best quality care.
On Saturday 5th Feb there are national read-ins being planned in threatened libraries across the country. All of Southport's permanently accommodated libraries are threatened with closure - Birkdale, Ainsdale and Churchtown. As far as I am aware there are no read ins planned for Southport but if you would like to organise one in your local library or have organised one and want me to publicise it or would like some help please contact me, also look at http://publiclibrariesnews.blogspot.com
Blyth and I were out in the (cold) morning with the SACC banner handing out leaflets to the councillors as they arrived for the Cabinet Meeting and to passers by. We seemed to be very well recieved and several people came back in the evening for the protest.
The demonstration in the evening was well attended and made local and national news on Granada Reports and Daybreak. There are some pictures, videos and a write up on Southport forums and it made the front page of the local papers.
The Southport Forums page reports:
"At the Council meeting held at Southport Town Hall on 27th Jan 2011 it was decided that 7 Centre based Youth Clubs would be closed. The clubs affected are Stanley, Meols Cop, Birkdale, Formby, Maghull, Crosby and Aintree. That mens that there is no Youth Service facility until you get to Bootle.
The Labour Party proposed useing "one off funding" to keep them open for a further 12 months. This was voted down by the combined vote of the Conservatives and Lib Dems. The 2 exceptions to this were Cllr Lord Fearn and Cllr Anne Ibbs from Formby. Lord Fearn spoke strongly about how valuable this service was and the huge loss it would be if it was withdrawn.
Cllr Weavers and Cllr Sumner absented themselves from the debate as they declared that they had an interest, in that they sat on the Management Committee of Meols Cop Youth Club. This line of arguement was thrown into doubt however by the presence of the Lib Dem leader Tony Robertson who himself took part in the debate, voted and who himself is a member of a Youth Club Committee.
The Duke of Edinburgh scheme provided by the Youth Service was also axed.
Other services that were cut that affect Southport are as follows
Southport YMCA £50,000 CUT
Parenting 2000 £57,000 CUT
Sefton Women &
Chidrens Aid £49,900 CUT
KGV Gym
Club £7,595 CUT
11th Southport
Scouts £1008 CUT
Kew Woods
Home Start £2000 CUT
Sefton CVS £2,131,207 CUT
Sefton CAB £169,858 CUT"
UKUncut were undeterred from their peaceful anti-tax avoidance protest on Sunday. Despite police outnumbering protestors 4 to 1 and some would be protestors being frightened off the peaceful protest bravely went ahead. The protestors were highlighting Boots' Swiss PO Box scam which allows them to avoid £86m in tax each year. Boots, as a provider of private health care in the UK also stands to benefit from the NHS Bill which sees a shift towards "competitiveness"within the NHS - another way of saying that services are going to be outsourced to private companies. If in any doubt about the effect of doing this with healthcare you just need to look at what happened when hospital cleaning was outsourced - MRSA and C. Difficile. We don't want the cheapest service provider, we want the best quality care.
On Saturday 5th Feb there are national read-ins being planned in threatened libraries across the country. All of Southport's permanently accommodated libraries are threatened with closure - Birkdale, Ainsdale and Churchtown. As far as I am aware there are no read ins planned for Southport but if you would like to organise one in your local library or have organised one and want me to publicise it or would like some help please contact me, also look at http://publiclibrariesnews.blogspot.com
TUSC looking for local candidates and standing as an independent.
The Trade Union and Socialist coalition are looking for candidates to stand in the local council elections. They say;
"We need hundreds of challenges to job-cutting,
services-axing councillors"
email: TUSCbulletin@yahoo.co.uk
What you can do to support the TUSC challenge:
•We need people to stand as TUSC candidates in the local elections. Get in touch if you want to stand.
•Make sure that the TUSC election challenge is raised inside your anti-cuts group to see if there are others who want to stand candidates.
•Circulate this Bulletin as widely as possible. We want to spread our message.
If you think their idea is a good one but don't support their party you may want to consider standing for another party or as an independent. Information on standing as an independent can be found here: http://www.picx.co.uk/frame.html
Thursday, 27 January 2011
Full Council meeting
The Save Our Children's Centres group are reporting that the council has deferred the decision on children's centres pending a full costing review and consultation.
The councillors voted 36 to 22 against keeping the centres unconditionally.
Also that 3 out of 9 jobs at Botanic Nursery will be kept - we are unsure what this means or who will stay and it is not yet known whether these staff will be retained to grow flowers or sell them or whether, if they are outsourcing flowers still, where they will come from. The main draw of the Botanic Nursery is that the flowers are grown locally, I believe there isn't really a market for foreign flowers being sold in this context - there are numerous chain stores where these flowers can already be appropriated and the draw of the shops in Churchtown Village near to Botanic is that they are independent local proprietors - that is what people expect and why they come.
The councillors voted 36 to 22 against keeping the centres unconditionally.
Also that 3 out of 9 jobs at Botanic Nursery will be kept - we are unsure what this means or who will stay and it is not yet known whether these staff will be retained to grow flowers or sell them or whether, if they are outsourcing flowers still, where they will come from. The main draw of the Botanic Nursery is that the flowers are grown locally, I believe there isn't really a market for foreign flowers being sold in this context - there are numerous chain stores where these flowers can already be appropriated and the draw of the shops in Churchtown Village near to Botanic is that they are independent local proprietors - that is what people expect and why they come.
Wednesday, 26 January 2011
Southport UKUncut
Southport UKUncut are targeting Boots this weekend as part of a National Day of Action highlighting tax avoidance and evasion.
They are asking people to:
The action taken will depend on the participants who come.
They are asking people to:
"Meet at Southport train station - 1300. Bring placards / kids / whatever you think will draw peoples' attention to Boots and their evasion of UK tax."
The action taken will depend on the participants who come.
SSCCN Success!
Yesterday I went to support the Save Our Children's Centres march. It was a resounding success with over 1500 signatures for the petition being collected over 2 hours in a mammoth effort by many mums in the rain with plenty of children in tow!
The final count was 3042 signatures enabling the group to speak in support of the Children's Centres at the Full Council Meeting tomorrow.
Useful information about Childrens Centre provision and the Council's responsibilities can be found here:
http://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/DCSF-00280-2010.pdf
The SSCCN facebook group is here:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_102158533195070&ap=1
There is a lot of useful information and many knowledgeable people on there.
The final count was 3042 signatures enabling the group to speak in support of the Children's Centres at the Full Council Meeting tomorrow.
Useful information about Childrens Centre provision and the Council's responsibilities can be found here:
http://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/DCSF-00280-2010.pdf
The SSCCN facebook group is here:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_102158533195070&ap=1
There is a lot of useful information and many knowledgeable people on there.
Nina's Minutes 24/1/11
SACC Meeting 24 January 2011.
Planning meeting for demo on Thursday 27 January 2011.
1. 1. Leaflets have been printed out and will be given out in Southport on Thursday morning, targeting the Cabinet meeting. Celia, Blyth and Kat volunteered to hand out leaflets. Demo to start at 5.30pm. Kat will speak. TUC and unions will be there protesting too. Kat has had a banner made and we will display it to make our presence known. People were asked to bring placards with slogans such as ‘No mandate, no cuts’. We’ll meet outside the town hall, make lots of noise, chants such as ‘Listen; talk to us’
2. 2. A question was asked about whether we should lobby local political parties and counsellors. It was felt it would be beneficial to ask as many councillors face to face about the cuts and why they are not consulting with the public. We also could write to heads of department at the council and request meetings with council officers. The council has set up a new section of the website to give comments about the cuts, so we all need to go on there and give our opinions. Other councils have set up forums to consult with the public so we need to press for something similar. We need to ask whether they have considered the deeper implications of the Botanic Gardens closure eg cost of benefits to those made redundant and the negative impact on spending in the town due to the redundancies and the possible loss of visitors to the area. We need to find out if, when and where the councillors hold surgeries and go to them. Birkdale councillors are available at Birkdale library on first Saturday of each month. Nina will contact the council to see if they can give us a comprehensive list.
3. 3. John thought he might be able to push for a judicial review of the cuts decisions via his carers charity. He will investigate and report back. Lillian said she would push the council for a list of cuts and it was thought if as many of us as possible can keep going into the council offices asking for info about the cuts that are decided on on Thursday (if they are slow to publish) then that would be beneficial. Also if we can all ring the council to ask to attend the council meeting on Thursday, if we are told no we can claim that is undemocratic and is not giving us access to the council.
4. 4. The SACC will meet on the second Monday of each month and more often if necessary.
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