Councils should unite to fight Government cuts

Pendle Council leader Joe Cooney is quoted as saying: “They need to tell us what they want us to do” (Leader Times, September 27th).

Can I suggest these proposed cuts are a step too far as they will lead either to charges or a reduction in services?

We are told that, as well as £5m. cuts in year two of the Government’s three-year austerity measures, we face a further £7m. in the third year. Will our council tax bills be lowered as a result? I doubt it.

The irony for local councils is that while the Government imposes more and more duties on them, at the same time it does not give them the resources to do the job.

Our local councillors should demand the Government restores in full the central support grant to councils so they can fulfil their commitments.

Now the economy is on the road to recovery, this is the least the Government should do.

The electorate should realise Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, is stifling the life out of communities with these draconian cuts, particularly in many deprived areas.

This is at a time when Pickles’s own department was guilty of profligate overspending. It ended the financial year £217m. overdrawn and was fined £20,000 by Her Majesty’s Treasury.

So, local authorities should get together and fight to reverse the cuts.

They should not simply roll over and accept a fait accompli.

David Penney

Colne