Birmingham’s Green Party Councillors tried to protect some of the city’s most important services with their amendment to the Budget at the council meeting on Tuesday March 4th.
Green Party Councillors Julien Pritchard and Rob Grant proposed an amendment to put funding back into Libraries, Youth Centres and street cleaning after they were cut from last year’s budget. They are also proposing to reintroduce free pest control for rats and put more money back into flooding, but unfortunately the amendment was voted down by Labour councillors.
They were able to find officially approved savings in communications, the council’s senior leadership team, support to council political groups and the council cabinet, plus a small reduction in allowances for the council cabinet.
Green Party Councillor Julien Pritchard said:
“Once again this Council budget is cutting services, which means residents will continue to suffer for a crisis not of their making. There’s a lot of talk about tough choices and difficult decisions. It’s not really difficult for the people making those decisions. It’s not hard for those people at the top.”
“As well as the Council’s self-inflicted mistakes and mis-management, Birmingham isn’t getting the funds it needs from the Labour Government to deliver services for the residents of this city. Austerity is well and truly still alive and kicking under Labour.”
“Vital services could be funded by taxing wealth. It seems that Labour would rather make tough choices that mean ordinary residents suffer, than the tough choices that tax wealth.”
“Without the council leadership sticking up for the needs of residents, more Birmingham Council cuts are to come next year, so there’s not much hope things will get better.”
“We’re trying to give a bit of hope and put back some funding into some of those front line services that really matter to residents.”
Green Party Councillor Rob Grant said:
“People will be rightly upset that they are paying more for less. Residents are rightly asking why they should pay when they’re getting so little service.”
“And what role have residents played in setting this Council budget? Residents have had little say in the prioritisation of how the woefully low levels of funds are spent. Their voices have not been heard in drawing up this Labour budget.”
The Green Party Budget Amendment can be read in full here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XUGZz95j8UOUHD1W9AkWzgOlDmE2hcFe/view?usp=sharing