Unison is pointing the finger at the members of Highland Council ahead of the meeting to rubber-stamp the cuts at Glenurquhart Road in nine days time and the title of this post is from a quote in the Press and Journal today. Locally today's Nairnshire Telegraph has a front page article on how the cuts will affect Nairnshire. It seems the swimming pool and the library will stay and go under the wing of an ALO (Arm's Length Organisation) but in the longer term, can anyone be sure that the threat of losing facilities will not return as the Council struggles to find money to fund that ALO? In the sense of how the cuts will affect the Highlands as a whole it is worth turning to the Press and Journal site again:
"Mr Alston was unable to say exactly how many people would lose their jobs, as some posts were currently being held vacant or filled only on a temporary basis."
It is this uncertainty that is most disconcerting, nobody can predict the full impact of the cuts and the knock on effect as things we have taken for granted for so long disappear from the municipal landscape. Here in Nairn one only has to look at the loss of the Community Care Forum to see how essential networks that bind a community will come under threat. The cuts meeting on February the 10th will be a bleak day along at Glenurquhart Road and the statement from the Unions will be echoed by many: Highland Council didn't cause the financial crisis but the current administration (LibDem/Labour/Independent) will get the blame for putting them through and it is inevitable that the cuts will have an impact when voters go to the polls for the Holyrood elections in May. We've been hearing about cuts for a long time now but they are just around the corner - the Phoney War is over!
And what colour is the blood of the bankers?
ReplyDeleteI hope when the Scottish elections come in May people here will go and vote a definate NO for our Lib candidate. it is no use complaining about cuts,and doing nothing about it. Its the governments doing and they should be punished for the hardship they are causing the working classes. If you are responsible for voting them in (by the way I have never met anyone who will admit that they did)then vote them outin May.
ReplyDeleteHow can they say that the cons and the libs are not responsible for the cuts, they are supposed to be the ruling government. Unfortunately they are quite happy to pass the buck, but anyone with half a brain cell should be able to see through that tactic.
ReplyDeleteI agree with above
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