Derby City Council are proposing to cut the equivalent of 162 full-time jobs, axe vital front line services and hike council tax by almost 5% in a last ditch attempt to balance this year’s books.
The Conservative-run administration plan to effectively axe community-managed libraries, cut support to vulnerable children and the elderly, scale down highways maintenance and street cleaning, and handover leisure services to private companies.
UNISON Derby City branch secretary Becky Everett said:
“All our members want for Christmas is job security. No one should spend the festive period worrying about how they’re going to feed their family or heat their home.
“Let’s hope this is the last Christmas the Tories are in charge of Derby.”
UNISON East Midlands regional organiser Emma Roberts said: “It’s the Tories who stole Christmas. Derby City Council have been in financial difficulty for some time now, so why have they allowed so many big projects to overspend? They have also spent over £1.5 million on legal fees refusing to settle an equal pay claim.
“Local councils are cash-strapped thanks to 12 years of this Scrooge-like Conservative government and authorities will keep resorting to ever more desperate measures just to keep services going.
“Austerity has cast a long, nasty shadow over this country and cost many lives – yet it seems the worse is yet to come in Derby.”
