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Wednesday, November 28, 2012
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COUNCIL TO CUT ANOTHER £21m ■ 250 jobs at risk ■ Crossing patrols to go ■ Care home closing BY ALEX CAMPBELL alex.campbell@thesentinel.co.uk
SCHOOL crossing patrols will be axed, CCTV cameras scaled back and 250 more jobs will go under city council plans to cut more than £21 million. Stoke-on-Trent City Council today unveils citywide cuts which target frontline services, outsource more elderly care and slash nursery education. Staff pay will be frozen for a fourth year and the authority will again take on unions by trying to make savings through cutting contractual perks. But 848 of the lowest paid workers, most of whom are part-time, will receive pay increases to lift them from the minimum wage to a national ‘living wage’ of £7.45 an hour. Budget cut proposals for 2013/14 include: ■ Cutting crossing patrols at schools with a pedestrian crossing – unless they agree to pay for them – and increasing other school service charges to raise £427,000; ■ Reducing CCTV monitoring to focus on troublespot areas at peak times and axing the environmental crime unit with the loss of 19 jobs to save £782,000; ■ Shutting the St Michael’s care home, in Chell; ■ Increasing prices at leisure facil-
ities like Dimensions and Fenton Manor by three per cent; ■ Slashing free nursery class provision from 30 hours a week to the legal minimum of 15 hours to save £1.7 million; ■ Axing £50,000 funding to voluntary groups. Council leaders say cuts to the frontline are now ‘inevitable.’ The authority is commissioning experts to work out how poor pupil performance in the first two years of schooling can be approved despite the cuts to nursery provision. Council tax will be frozen as planned at £788.98 for Band A properties, which will trigger a £600,000 payment from the Government. The savings of £21.1 million include an £8 million cut in grant funding and £13.1 million cost pressures the Government will not cover – including soaring childcare demands, contractual increments, inflation and the living wage pledge. Council and Labour leader Mohammed Pervez said: “The cuts are severe. We simply can’t afford to carry on the way we have.” Chief executive John van de Laarschot said: “We have tried to delay it for as long as possible, but we are getting to the level now where we have to start looking at reductions in frontline services.”
Today’s cuts come as the council has already saved £56 million over the past two years. Consultation runs until January 11 with the budget due to be fixed on February 28.
Are you affected by the cuts? Email us at letters@thesentinel.co.uk Where the axe falls: See Pages 6&7
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£31m deal will see 1,600 new staff taken on OUTSOURCING giant Capita will take over school services in Staffordshire in a move council leaders say will secure investment of £50 million and create 1,600 jobs. The firm will pay £31.4 million for a 51 per cent share of a new business which will partner Staffordshire County Council from April to sell everything from cleaning to special needs support and staff training to schools. About 4,000 council jobs will be transferred to the business, which will have a headquarters in Staffordshire. The authority said existing jobs will be protected and 1,613 new posts will be created within the county as the business expands to swallow up and run services in other parts of the country. Capita has committed to investing £50 million in increasing the business with outdoor education centres set to be revamped. Affected services also include school grounds maintenance, performing arts, music tuition, property management and ICT. See Page 15
CITY STARS MUST BE ‘PROPER CHARLIES’ SEE BACK PAGE
CUTS: Lollipop man Peter Chadwick. Picture: Malcolm Hart
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