Angry protest outside Leicester Town Hall ahead of city council budget meeting
Anti-cuts protesters and union members carried out an angry protest at Leicester Town Hall this afternoon as councillors met inside to approve cuts of millions of pounds to its spending.
More than 50 campaigners gathered to voice their anger at the council's plans to cut £3 million from its budgets from April and a further six million the following year.
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Anti-cuts protesters outside Leicester Town Hall this afternoon
Before the meeting began a large changing crowd pushed past council staff to demonstrate loudly but peacefully in the town hall foyer.
More than a dozen police officers were in place to make sure no trouble started.
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Tony Church, of the Leicestershire Against The Cuts movement, said: "We want to let the mayor Sir Peter Soulsby how upset we are with the cuts they are making on behalf of this Tory government.
"Soulsby should be standing up to the government and using his influence with other Labour councils to fight these cuts."
He said he was particularly concerned about proposed cuts which would see 200 council hostel beds in the city axed.
Though Sir Peter withdrew the issue from the budget at the last minute because results of a consultation have yet to be considered, Mr Church said: "We are the sixth richest country in the world. There is no need for these cuts. The money can be found."
6 Comments
by keiran
Thursday, February 21 2013, 5:52AM
“Waterloo...good comments.Well presented.A few comments from me ...pete park is an ego trip for pete.There aint much demolition needed in the developement as such and whatever there is will go to landfill(oh no !).The proposed surface for the area is resin based(oh no !) similar to New Cycle(oops ..Walk!).The parking,bus stops will go.Loss of long term business to the City.It aint pretty and not a "wow, lets go to Leicester and see petes park" type of venture.
Using the mantra of "martins money saving tips"(know him ?) Do I want it ?Do I need it?Can I afford it ? if the answer to one issue is no forget it.
I just find it sickening that pete can find a few quid for his park at the same time as closing hostels,nursing homes,buying gypsy sites and buying derelict/useless properties at the same time.”
by JamesWaterloo
Wednesday, February 20 2013, 9:56PM
“Fire up your red arrows but here is a few things nobody thinks about:
1) 459 people on over 50k working for LCC - so that includes headteachers, council leaders and (I assume) other leaders of their profession. What nobody thinks is that these are highly skilled jobs which come with a lot of stress and require a great deal of experience. Why would the best of the best accept minimum wage for this type of job? Maybe we don't have the best of the best or maybe we do, all I know is that I wouldn't do a headteachers job for less than 50k.
2) Look at rich people. Not musicians and the like - really rich people. What do they do? They save. Look at successful businesses - do they waste money? Do they spend what they cannot afford? Leicester city council owe more than Jessops. A bit of fiscal caution is not a bad thing.
3) The sixth richest country in the world we may be. But a generation of borrowing has left us in debt. Think of those people who win the lottery and 10 years later file for bankruptcy - that's the uk.
4) Jubilee square is Peter showing his teacher side - if it looks nice it must be nice! In my opinion the money could be better spent on developing the manufacturing industry in Leicester however people seem to forget that the 4 million has to go somewhere and if LCC has any sense at all they'll use Leicester builders, Leicester materials, Leicester architects, Leicester demolition teams. That'll be 4 million being put back into our economy - allowing local construction firms to expand, take on new apprentices and hopefully stand building outside of Leicester.
Just a few things I thought!”
by LewisC109
Wednesday, February 20 2013, 9:41PM
“being a yellow belly like he is sir pete should stand up for the people of leicester and tell this con gov what the people think and stand in our corner and fight against them not just lay on his back and give in”
by KulganCrydee
Wednesday, February 20 2013, 6:46PM
“Cutting the budget by £3m but can still find £4m for the Mayor's vanity project Jubilee Square. Interesting Labour priorities.”
by disident3
Wednesday, February 20 2013, 6:03PM
“Just wonder how many of them work for a living?
Sack two thirds of Councillors see their change of attitude when their own expenses are under threat. May even frighten them into saying stop to Peter the Great, after all you cannot sack the elite.”
by NickDiPerna1
Wednesday, February 20 2013, 5:13PM
“Ironic being on the same day it was announced that 459 Leicester City Council staff are on £50,000-plus.
And:
"Taxpayers fork out £1.9billion a year on the high salaries, at a time when town halls are cutting frontline services and blaming the Government's cuts."
"There was plenty of scope for councils to make savings without hitting services for the vulnerable."
Wake up!”