Following the Conservative group’s failure to get approval for the 2023-24 budget at a full council meeting on Monday night, Leader of Derby City Council Chris Poulter said: “We can make available a sum of money for priorities to be negotiated and discussed with group leaders in relation to being able to formulate an acceptable budget.”
UNISON Derby City assistant branch secretary Ian Middleton said: “Derby City Council are proposing to axe over 100 jobs and cut support to vulnerable children and the elderly, scale down highways maintenance and street cleaning, and handover leisure services to private companies, but they can find the money when it suits them.
“If there is money available to the council, they should be using it to save jobs and protect Derby’s vital frontline services not their own political situation.”
UNISON East Midlands regional organiser Emma Roberts said: “The Conservatives in Derby might try and paint themselves as the party of fiscal responsibility, but their record tells a different story.
“They have spent over £1.5 million on legal fees refusing to settle an equal pay claim, allowed projects to overspend, and their plans to reboot the Sinfin incinerator project is expected to cost more than £60 million. They have got their priorities totally wrong.
“We welcome a discussion about this money that is now available being used to stop further job losses this year.”
Notes to editors:
UNISON is the UK’s largest union with more than 1.3 million members providing public services in education, local government, the NHS, police service and energy. They are employed in the public, voluntary and private sectors.
