MP playing blame game over council cuts

This is being brought about by savage cuts imposed by this Government. It imposed a crippling shortfall in funding over the next two years of some £3m. The shortfall is on top of cuts already enacted.

I am sure anyone in business knows full well the need to balance the books, well, local councils are no different.

I am pretty sure the council will have looked extremely closely at its options, and will already have made massive savings as required by central government ie cost-cutting measures to varying degrees, but there is only so much that can be obtained.

I see our MP has interjected by stating the council should hold further discussions with staff and senior management to make them more efficient and less top heavy.

He says there are plenty of savings to be made within the council that can be achieved without decimating services. This sounds like he is in favour of more job losses. Well, if that is the case, I can point out to him one area in which a job loss might just be beneficial: sack a councillor who holds two jobs – one as a councillor with Burnley Council and the other as the town’s MP. There is just no need to be paying any expenses for what is, after all, a part-time councillor.

But hang on a moment, what on earth is this MP banging on about when he is partly responsible for the cuts in the first place? Talk about double standards.

He goes on about things Burnley Council is struggling to achieve, such as its work on fly tipping and abandoned rubbish when all the time he and his cohorts are to blame as they are forcing the council to make public servants redundant and slashing funds that would enable the council to do its job properly.

Information obtained through the democracy website “they work for you.com” confirms he voted very strongly to reduce central government funding of local government; double standards indeed. Too often, the LibDems play the blame game, when in reality it is their policies which have caused the problem in the first place.

Keith Royle

Mizpah Street, Burnley