JOHN LISTER
Socialist Alliance Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Oxford East. (www.oxfordsocialists.org.uk)
Press Release
Embargo: Not for publication before 00.01 Monday March 5
Socialists back protest at Oxford City Council cuts package
Oxford Socialist Alliance has given its full support to council unions and others who will be lobbying the Town Hall this afternoon in protest at a package of cuts by the City Council which will axe 30 jobs, mainly in leisure services, and remove facilities from the Council’s two union convenors.
Cuts totalling £3.7m have been agreed by the City Council’s ruling Liberal Democrat and Green councillors: but they are simply the latest in a long succession of cuts in jobs and services by the County and City councils.
John Lister, the Socialist Alliance candidate challenging Treasury Secretary Andrew Smith in Oxford East, said:
"To add insult to injury, these cuts run alongside a thumping 9.5% increase in the City’s share of council tax, making it clear that under the "new" council leadership Oxford residents pay even more for even less.
"But part of the blame must rest with the Labour government in Westminster, which is continuing the vicious squeeze on council spending that began under Thatcher, and has taken an annual toll of vital services at County and now City council level ever since. If we let this go on, where will it ever stop?
"Oxford is one of the more prosperous areas of the fourth richest country in the world: it is outrageous that while Gordon Brown is sitting on vast unspent surpluses of cash hard-working, low-paid council workers are seeing their jobs axed to balance the books of the City Council.
"The Socialist Alliance is fighting for the restoration of local services, and the return of civic pride. We are for a big increase in central government funding of local councils, based on progressive taxation of big business and the rich."
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