Islington Council leader blames ‘vindictive’ coalition as £52m axe falls

Published: 25th February, 2011
by TERRY MESSENGER

LABOUR Town Hall leader Catherine West reached for Neil Kinnock’s “dented shield” to defend a policy of implementing cuts forced on her party by the Conservative-led government.

At last Thursday budget-setting meeting, she defied left-wing protesters’ demands that the council drop its proposed £52million cuts.

Holloway bus garage union rep and prominent anti-cuts campaigner Paul Brandon argued that the council should refuse to endorse the budget reduction package – thereby inviting coalition local government minister Eric Pickles to retaliate by taking over the Town Hall.

Mr Brandon and fellow campaigners hope that popular protest would then defeat the coalition strategy of public spending reductions.

But Councillor West’s Labour administration voted instead to implement cuts of £52million next financial year and a further £50million over the following three years.

She told the meeting, after the protesters had been removed: “Tonight we move a budget that sees the worst cuts our community has ever seen. 

“It is a budget forced on our borough by a government that has taken a vindictive decision. 

“It has decided not just to cut, but to cut fast, to cut deep and to target those cuts at those who can least afford it...

“So we have decided to use our dented shield to do what we can to protect the services that our community needs.” In the 1980s, Mr Kinnock, then Labour Party leader, called on councils to protect public services with a “dented shield” as a rate-cap rebellion fell apart. 

Last week, the council approved more than 200 reductions in services, involving more than 300 job losses.

But Cllr West emphasised the handful of services the authority is maintaining or has newly implemented. 

These include a new Citizens Advice Bureau, lollipop wardens, a school uniform grant, a new dog warden – and the controversial free school meals policy for all primary pupils.

Afterwards she insisted: “Had we not been able to do the budget tonight, there’s a strong chance Eric Pickles would have come in and taken away the good things we do. I believe that would be really letting down low-income people.”

Lib Dem opposition councillors pinpointed “indefensible” items of Town Hall expenditure totalling £3.5 million – such as members’ expenses, Islington Life magazine, replacement of the chief executive and the free school meals for primary children.

The party called for the abolition of Homes for Islington, which manages council housing, with the council taking over its functions.

Savings will hit most vulnerable

MOST of the Town Hall savings have been achieved by paring down services rather than closing them.

The most severe cuts are to the Connexions Advice Service for young people and the partially reprieved Sotheby Mews Day Centre for the elderly in Highbury.

However, the budget plan repeatedly slices bits off services to the most vulnerable, including the mentally ill, teenage parents, foster parents, drug addicts and the elderly.

In describing a £207,000 reduction in help for young drug addicts, Town Hall officials have warned of “a significant reduction in support and services to young people with substance misuse needs”.

A £300,000 reduction in the money spent on finding, paying and supporting foster parents “may impact on the recruitment of carers”, the officials add.

They warn that cutting social worker posts in child and adolescent mental health services, saving £200,000, will “reduce capacity to address children’s mental health at a preventative level”.

A measure to save £73,000 on helping deal with teenage pregnancy will “reduce young parent support”. 

Officials say that saving £35,000 on an axed youth worker to help young offenders “may impact on services to reduce anti-social behaviour”. 

Other notable cuts include:

• No money for police community support officers who help prevent trouble in primary schools.
• No more council cash for Christmas lights.
• Axing cash for the Plus Bus route from Hoxton through Finsbury.
• An end to help with shopping, laundry and cleaning for the elderly and disabled with less severe needs.
• Reduced services to people in residential and nursing homes. 

The council hopes that many of the reduced services for children will be restored by schools, which have been warned of a five per cent cut to their budgets.

Council staff union leader Jane Doolan told a protest rally outside the Town Hall that senior officials were protecting themselves while cutting jobs for staff providing vital services.

She said: “Councillors need to take some control. I am utterly convinced there are some senior officers within this council who see this as an opportunity to pick and choose staff who they want to get rid of while putting a protective wall around themselves.”

Ruling Labour councillors and council officials have already begun to draw up a list of cuts for the following three years. 

Ms Doolan has claimed they include a £250,000 reduction for library services, resulting potentially in the closure of libraries.

The budget document reveals that a 15 per cent increase in council tax is proposed over the next four years.

Top boss’s trimmed pay still more than PM

ISLINGTON’S new chief executive will still be paid more than the Prime Minister despite a £50,000 pay cut, opposition Liberal Democrats claim.

They are calling for the post to be abolished along with the jobs of his four personal assistants, thus saving £290,000.

Lib Dem group leader Councillor Terry Stacy said: “The sort of money we are spending on this is simply not justified in the current climate.”

Chief executive John Foster is paid £210,000 a year and his PAs cost the council a further £130,000, said Cllr Stacy.

Mr Foster is retiring in May and the Labour-run council is recruiting a replacement on £160,000. But that is still more than David Cameron’s salary of £142,500, Cllr Stacy pointed out.

He said: “In these challenging financial times, it’s good that Islington Labour council bosses have listened and reduced the new chief executive’s salary. But it’s not enough and residents deserve more bang for their buck. Do we really need a chief executive’s office? Why can’t two of the present senior management team share the job to save significant sums of money?”

The Lib Dems appointed John Foster and agreed his salary in 2008 when they were in power.