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THE SENTINEL Friday February 24, 2012
WHERE THE AXE WILL BE FALLING CHILDREN AND FAMILIES ■ Schools will be forced to pay extra for swimming lessons with three years of incremental increases for school swimming at council facilities. Subsidy will be wiped out altogether in 2015 as schools will have to pay for hiring the venues. Council officers have warned the move could lead to fewer swimming lessons or see schools go to Newcastle in search of a better deal. After-school swimming subsidy and the community swimming service also face funding cuts – £71,000. City of Stoke-on-Trent Swimming Club, known as COSACSS, is also set to lose its £32,000 council funding. The club, which has been established for more than 30 years, puts the funding towards venue hire and paying for two swimming coaches. It also supplements annual fees paid by its 173 members, who book 15,000 swims per year; ■ Children’s centres central management team and associated costs are cut – £84,000; ■ Youth clubs in Stoke, Meir, Bentilee, Packmoor, Burslem, Goldenhill and Berry Hill could close with up to nine jobs scrapped – £398,000;
SWIMMING SUBSIDY Savings: £71,000 ■ Three education welfare officers will be cut, despite protests from teachers, meaning primary schools would not have their own named officer and there would be no intervention until a pupil’s attendance dips below 75 per cent. Crucial home visits which can lead to further interventions by social workers would also be sharply reduced – £84,000; ■ Three jobs cut as part of savings in the Youth Offending Service – £57,000; ■ Playground inspection team, which monitors safety of facilities for youngsters, to lose a member of staff – £23,000;
As citywide savings of £20 million are rubberstamped, Alex Campbell reports on where the axe will fall - and what is being done to counter the cuts MULTI-MILLION pound cuts will again hit services across the city – but council leaders believe their investment strategy will provide crucial jobs. Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s budget for 2012/13 will see citywide savings of £24 million, with £4.6 million reinvested in the authority’s Mandate for Change. It means cash will be ploughed into promoting inward investment, making potential development sites “shovel ready” and improving the traffic network. But cuts will see care facilities and youth centres closed, while scores of services are scaled back. Council leader Mohammed Pervez said: “We’re still in unprecedented times and still facing extremely difficult and deep Government cuts. “The budget shows our determination to make Stoke-on-Trent a great working city. “The council tax increase will be just 51p per week for Band A properties. We don’t believe the Gover nment’s one-size-fits-all approach to council tax is the right one, and we are fighting this. “The Government’s offer is for one year only. It would result in a loss of £13 million over five years, money we can use to protect the most vulnerable and stimulate our economy. It is money we cannot afford to lose.” The authority was forced into a U-turn on plans to push dementia sufferers at Marrow House into the private sector. Plans to scrap the ceremonial role of the Lord Mayor were also shelved after an outcry. And the council is yet to reach an agreement with unions on savings of £2 million which will see staff lose rights
NORTHWOOD STADIUM Savings: £40,000
■ Funding for a library of toys and equipment used by child-minders catering for disabled children will be slashed. The library will not immediately close but old and damaged equipment will not be replaced – £90,000; ■ A contract with the NSPCC to provide support for children traumatised by domestic abuse has been ended – £40,000;
FORD GREEN HALL Savings: £58,000
like weekend pay and car parking. The Sentinel revealed this week how the council is poised to avoid strike action by bin men after a climbdown on plans to drastically cut their pay. Monday bin collections are now likely to be scrapped, and team leaders will become labourers to save £395,000 in waste collection. Independent and Conservative councillors voted against the budget, but the ruling Labour group holds a 24-vote majority. Some of Labour’s own members acknowledged the difficulty of the decisions being made. Karen Clarke, Labour member for Fenton West and Mount Pleasant, raised concerns about the closure of Fenton Day Centre and lack of investment in the town, adding: “It’s with a very heavy heart and great sadness that I support this.” Responding to opposition taunts, councillor Sarah Hill, cabinet member for finance, said: “No I can’t sleep at night, I haven’t slept properly for months and a lot of people in the cabinet would say the same thing, as would our officers. “It has been extremely difficult and we’ve tried to do our best for the city.” North Staffs Against Cuts gathered outside the civic centre to protest. Organiser Jason Hill, president of the North Staffordshire Trade Union Council, said: “We feel the cuts will have the worst impact on people who are vulnerable; the disabled, elderly and children. “The so-called Mandate for Change proposes to create jobs, but it seems perverse to create jobs in the private sector by cutting them in the public sector.” HARD TIMES: Council leader Mohammed Pervez.
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WEDGWOOD MEMORIAL COLLEGE Savings: £28,000 per year
PROTEST: Oscar Halstead, aged 10, from Stoke, joins the anti-cuts protest outside the civic centre. Picture: Alex Severn
THE SENTINEL Friday February 24, 2012
Why authority refused £2m cash incentive A NATIONAL Government cash incentive for local authorities to freeze tax would have seen the city council receive £2 million. The government’s offer is equivalent to an increase of 2.5 per cent. But, unlike a similar offer last year, which the city council did accept, the tax freeze cash is only guaranteed for one year. It is like receiving a bonus instead of a pay rise. The money can only be spent once and does not increase the base line from which future tax increases are added. The council would be left with an immediate £2 million cost pressure in April 2013 if it took the cash. City councillors have instead approved a tax increase of 3.49 per cent, which will raise an additional £3 million in 2012/13, and every year indefinitely. It will see the city’s 69,101 Band A properties pay £788.97, up from £762.37. The decision to reduce the increase from 3.5 per cent, dubbed “patronising” and “an insult” by campaigners, was made as a precaution following threats of Government intervention to authorities increasing bills by more than 3.5 per cent.
How the books were balanced.. ■ Government funding cuts: £8.6 million ■ Cost pressures like inflation and loan repayments: £10.9 million ■ Mandate for Change “save to invest” strategy: £4.6 million Total: £24.1 million To fund this, the city council will: ■ Cut staff and services to save: £20 million ■ Increase council tax to generate: £3 million ■ Borrow from cash owed to back-up cash to raise: £1.1 million Total £24.1 million
come up with business plans for taking over them. Management committees have now been given until April 2013 to draw up plans for running the popular facilities independently of the council. Operating budgets will be reduced and committees will have to find savings, but the overall cut of £162,000 has been scaled down to £62,000;
■ Children’s centres, libraries and other services could be merged or forced to share buildings – £566,000;
■ Buildings sell-off – revenue savings of £500,000;
SPEED CAMERAS Savings: £40,000
■ Campaigners fighting to save Wedgwood Memorial College are hoping to prevent the facility’s closure. The council is planning to close the Barlaston centre to save £28,000 per year and escape an additional £160,000 subsidy it says the college will need just to keep operating. The Save Wedgwood Memorial College group believes it can save the facility and make it profitable by focusing on its traditional strengths of offering residential educational courses;
NEIGHBOURHOODS ■ Speed cameras in the city will be kept active for another year, despite major cuts to the Safer Roads Partnership. The council backed down on plans to cut the £100,000 budget entirely after being told that all remaining active cameras would be switched off and no mobile police camera vans would visit the city. A total of 130 of the 260 fixed yellow speed traps in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent are never switched on and fewer than 29 are active at any one time. But the council’s initial plans would have meant every active camera in the city being decommissioned and no mobile police speed vans visiting the city. The Sentinel revealed earlier this month how bosses hope to make the cameras self-funding by raising the price of speed awareness courses to £100 or more. They currently cost £75 and allow motorists to avoid points on their licence. It is hoped the move will reduce the need for councils to subsidise the safety partnership, which
■ Athletes could be charged to park at Northwood Stadium while City of Stoke Athletics Club will have to pay extra membership fees. The council will have to spend thousands laying a suitable car park to justify charges but expects to save £40,000 from the £127,000 subsidy;
■ Closure-threatened community halls across the city were handed a stay of execution after complaints that residents were given just months to
ALLOTMENTS Savings: £21,000 ADMINISTRATION CUTS ■ Deputy manager’s post to be cut at Handley Drive learning disability centre, in Packmoor – £30,000; ■ Review of staffing in procurement – £33,000; ■ Six jobs to go and spending on PR and communications cut – £200,000; ■ Corporate restructure with the loss of four senior posts – £424,000; ■ Three jobs in sports and leisure services cut to save £111,000;
■ The council wants to offload both Etruria Industrial Museum and Ford Green Hall, Smallthorne. It is again trying to transfer both to a private company or social enterprise to keep them open. It is estimated the move will save the council a total of £158,000 per year, comprising £100,000 for Etruria and £58,000 for Ford Green.
regeneration managers – covering Burslem, Stoke and Longton – could be cut to save £77,000 while a further post will be left vacant. The council’s regeneration department would take on their work;
includes the county council and police – £40,000; ■ Reduced funding for the Healthy Cities programme which raises awareness about health and wellbeing – £30,000; ■ Efficiency savings in bereavement, trading standards, registrars and environmental health; reduced spending on pest control and teams who respond to late-night noise complaints will only be available at weekends during the summer – £160,000; ■ Funding cuts hitting the Safer City Partnership – which brings together council and policing issues – will see its £3.7 million budget slashed. Cash for junior firefighting schemes which help troubled schoolchildren build confidence and discipline will be cut, although the fire service will search for alternatives. Cash for alley gates, which lock out gangs and drive down anti-social behaviour in trouble hotspots, will be cut. The council would have reduced scope to send street teams to trouble hotspots to help tackle anti-social behaviour. And only one alcohol restriction zone, which gives police the power to seize booze, would be created in a year – £793,000; ■ Residents in areas with
LITTER PICKING Savings: £18,000 the lowest use of recycling bins will lose their collection and be told to use nearby recycling centres on their own – £57,000; ■ Large areas of public open space will receive only basic maintenance. Two staff will go and the areas will be allowed to grow into “wild meadows” – £46,000. Football pitch marking and weed-killing to be reduced with one job lost – £23,000. Up to 16 jobs will be cut in streetcleaning and ground cleansing. Town centres and littering hotspots will continue to be covered – £171,000. A further £48,000 will be saved on ground cleansing in the city centre and £18,000 will be saved on litter picking in city parks; ■ Four dedicated town centre RECYCLING Savings: £170,000
■ Organic waste recycling collections will be suspended between November and March every year with residents told to home-compost the rubbish or dump it in with general waste – £170,000; ■ Road safety projects reduced – £18,000; ■ Floral displays designed to improve the appearance of the city for visitors and motorists on key link roads will be cut. The council chopped £18,000 from its funding for bedding plants last year and is proposing to all but end its spending on flowers from 2012/13. The cut in spending on bedding plants would save £50,000 next year as some of the existing £180,000 budget would be spent on perennial plants that do not need much maintenance. It would mean several attractive floral displays being replaced with basic greenery, which does not need regular attention. The annual saving would increase to £125,000–per–annum thereafter; ■ The annual £634,000 budget for repairing street equipment like bins, signs and benches will be slashed. It will mean street equipment left badly damaged by vandals will be removed instead of being fixed – £100,000.
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ELDERLY AND ADULT SERVICES AND CARE ■ Rehabilitation care for elderly and vulnerable patients who need support before returning home after a hospital stay will be concentrated at St Michael’s, which will close as a care home. The Meadows centre of excellence will also close as a care home and could be reopened as a centre for adults with learning disabilities. The Meadows, in Bucknall, has received £800,000 investment over the last five years, while St Michael’s House, in Chell, has benefited from £1.4 million in improvements. The council originally planned to shut St Michael’s and the Meadows and use Marrow House for rehabilitation. It would have forced 15 dementia sufferers who live at the Meir Hay home to move into the private sector, as well as dozens who use it for regular respite care. Leader Mohammed Pervez announced a U–turn after families threatened a legal challenge and signed an undertaking that the council did not have permission to move any of their relatives. The latest plan will see 30 jobs cut and savings of £678,000;
■ New rotas will be drawn up for the city’s 22 traffic wardens to have more of them on the prowl during the daytime. Reduced overtime costs for working at night will save cash – £17,000; ■ Team manager’s post in the council’s culture and tourism team cut and replaced with a junior role – £21,000; ■ Civic Centre and Swann House, in Stoke, closed on Saturdays with council staff who have to work told to work at home or at Stoke Local Centre. Savings will be made from reduced spending on fuel bills and security – £25,000; ■ Administration cuts in allotment services – £21,000; ■ Four jobs cut in car parking services for staff car parks – £95,000; ■ Increased marketing of Longton Town Hall to boost income –£10,000; ■ Reducing the number of agency staff used for debt collection – £50,000;
FACILITIES ■ All six of the city’s public libraries – at Tunstall, Hanley, Longton, Meir, Stoke and Bentilee – will close at “least busy” times. Opening on Saturdays will be restricted to between 10am and 2pm with some half-day closures and no 7pm evening opening. Plans for a full library service at Blurton have been scrapped – £100,000;
■ Opening hours will be cut on Sunday mornings at Gladstone Pottery Museum, in Longton, to save £20,000; The New Vic Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent Music Festival and Make Some Noise youth festival will have funding cut by £10,000 this year, £19,000 next year and £26,000 in 2014/15;
■ Children placed in costly out-of-city social care placements may be forced to move as the council attempts to negotiate a five per cent cut in the amount it pays out – £326,000; ■ Funding for careers advice service Connexions will be slashed by £350,000. Schools face having to deliver face-to-face support to young people themselves or buy in careers workers from local authorities or other organisations.
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Protests cannot stop cuts to services across city
■ Trainee social workers will no longer be taken on as the council estimates it will save £110,000 per year by only employing qualified workers; ■ Fees for each child to receive transport to a faith school will increase from £390 to £450 – £24,000 gain. Remaining subsidy for sixth form and college students who use home-toschool transport will be scrapped, increasing fees from £330 to £450–per–child – £60,000;
NEWS
■ Use of an external courier to deliver mail to schools will be dropped with council staff taking on the responsibility – £50,000; ■ Job advertisements to be placed on the council’s website and not in trade magazines – £100,000; ■ The canteen at the Cromer Road depot, in Northwood, faces closure. A review of the restaurants at Hanley’s Potteries Museum and Stoke’s Civic Centre could lead to outsourcing – £150,000.
THE MEADOWS/CARE HOMES Savings: £678,000 ■ Budget of £968,000 for commissioning services from charities and voluntary groups to be cut with all “non–essential” services dropped – £100,000; ■ Duke Street respite facility, in Heron Cross, to be sold or handed to the private sector – £225,000; ■ Shelton Day Centre, which provides social opportunities and support for adults with learning disabilities, will close. The council will aim to provide better training and voluntary working opportunities while those with complex needs will move to a centre at Newstead – £140,000; ■ Pensioners and the disabled will have to pay to travel on Stoke-on-Trent’s buses before 9.30am for the first time.
What do you think about the cuts? Email your views to letters@ thesentinel.co.uk
Hansons New Derbyshire Saleroom
FREE VALUATION DAY
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IN AID OF DONNAH LOUISE HOSPICE ANTIQUES, JEWELLERY, SILVER, BOOKS, TOYS AND COLLECTABLES With valuers from the team of Charles Hanson, BBC Bargain Hunt Expert Thursday 1st March, 11.00-3.30pm Items may be left to be entered into a suitable sale
Longton Cricket Club
Ripon Road, off Trentham Road, Blurton, Stoke-on-Trent, ST3 3BL (Tollgate Hotel Entrance) Free home visits for larger items and collections For more information contact 01283 733988 service@hansonsauctioneers.co.uk - www.hansonsauctioneers.co.uk ‘Refreshments provided by Longton Cricket Club’
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