Wales online tells us that The leader of Rhondda Cynon Taf Council of warned his workforce in a letter that public services will be 'decimated' by the UK Government’s austerity measures.
Anthony Christopher warns of the “harsh reality” that compulsory redundancies could not be ruled out in order to bridge a £56m budget gap.
In the letter, Councillor Christopher wrote:
“So severe are the cuts being imposed on public sector funding by the UK Government we are faced with making some unprecedentedly difficult decisions.“I very much fear that, just as Thatcher decimated our nationalised industries locally in the 1980s, the same effect is going to be felt on our public services locally because of the ruthless austerity measures being imposed by the UK Government. In my 25 years in local government neither I or my colleagues have never had to consider such a bleak financial outlook.”“Such difficult decisions will inevitably force us to reduce the number of people the council employs and that is why the chief executive and I have written to all our workforce today explaining the harsh realities of the situation we face ahead,” the letter continues. We will do all we can to avoid the need for compulsory redundancies, but with such a dramatic reduction in the level of service we provide being necessary, it is impossible to rule this out moving into the future.”
Pete Crews, Unison RCT branch secretary, said he was inundated with calls yesterday from council staff following the announcement.
“We knew this was coming and it is a devastating blow for the staff and for our communities. If people lose their jobs, they stop spending and then communities suffer from that as well as service cuts,” he said.
It will be interesting to see if the Unions accept Anthony Christopher explanaton that this is all due to the London Governments cuts
Whilst clearly Mr Christopher has a strong argument in pointing most of the Blame to Westminster. If his workforce are to see cuts in their numbers . Perhaps he and his fellow councillors should consider taking a substantial cut in their allowances .
After all we are all in this together or are Politicians whatever the colour of their rosette exempt?
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