FIGHT THE CUTS IN HARINGEY - NO TO AUSTERITY

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Locally, we have to fight Haringey Council’s savage cuts. They are planning to slash £70 million from spending on services (25% of the budget) – including essential services for the most vulnerable in the community. Planned cuts include:

• Closing some children’s centres
• Closure of 3 of the 4 day centres for adults with Autism / Learning Disabilities, and a day centre for elderly people with dementia.
• A 100% cut in Youth Services, disguised to minimise ‘political risk’ (the council have merged two currently separate budgets for the proposal, Youth Service & Youth Offending. The youth service budget this year is £2.1m. The proposed cut is £2.1m…)

Details are well-buried in the council’s budget documents and the summary on the council’s website is dishonest www.haringey.gov.uk/strongerharingey They are pretending that the plan will make life better for people (‘a stronger Haringey’). Don’t be fooled. Instead of challenging the ideologically driven Tory/Lib Dem austerity, our local red Tories are wielding the axe, and are weaving a veil of consent by conducting a false ‘consultation’ – in effect, asking residents to rubber stamp their cuts plans.

I urge you to read and respond to the online consultation before 18th January. Fill in the online survey and also write to your local Councillor and the Leader of the Council. Below are the responses I have given to the questions in the consultation. Use these if you wish and add your own comments:

What do you think of our objectives and plans for younger people?

• The objectives for young people (‘the best start in life… healthier, happier, more resilient’) are completely at odds with the actual plans to decimate services
• Cutting all spending on youth services (£2.1m) will be a devastating blow to young people in Tottenham where youth unemployment is high. This comes on top of a 75% cut in the Council’s budget for youth services three years ago – one of the factors that led to the 2011 riots.
• Reducing the number of children’s centres and making childcare more expensive (by potentially reducing the childcare subsidy) will hit families hard – especially in Tottenham where almost half of children are growing up in poverty, and a third live in overcrowded homes with lack of access to decent play spaces.
• The talk of prioritising ‘early support’ is just empty rhetoric  - as the funding for support services (from Council and voluntary sector) is being slashed.

What do you think of the plans for adults?

• The plans will do the opposite of ensuring people ‘live healthy, long and fulfilling lives’
• The £30 million cut to services for people with learning disabilities, autism, dementia, and severe & enduring mental illness are a disgraceful and immoral attack on the most vulnerable in our community. These proposals are a dismantling of social welfare for vulnerable adults – turning the clock back decades.
• Closing day centres & residential homes and cutting care packages will simply pile more pressure on already hard-pressed family carers and make disabled people more isolated, and will lead to increased pressure on the NHS.
• Instead of planning to use only the cheapest care providers the council should honour its previously stated commitment to promoting the London Living Wage. People deserve good quality care from well-trained and decently paid staff.
• The 25% cut in social workers will leave vulnerable people more at risk from abuse and neglect.

What do you think of our plans for homes and communities?

• The draft corporate plan makes no mention of the Council’s plan to demolish thousands of council homes and socially cleanse Tottenham through ‘re-generation’.
• What we need to build a stronger community is more decent quality council homes, affordable rents on secure tenancies and an enforced rent cap

I utterly condemn the council’s proposals. There is a campaign across Haringey building up against these vicious cuts - from council trade unions, carers groups and young people. I will be doing all I can to support this campaign, and I urge everyone to join together to fight back and defend our services:

• Haringey Alliance for Public Services meeting, Thursday 8 January 7pm, North London Community Centre, Moorefield Rd N17
• UNISON open meeting, Monday 12 January 7pm, Wood Green Social Club, Stuart Crescent N22

In the meantime there is an important petition on youth services which urgently needs signatures. Please help local young people save their youth service and Bruce Grove Youth Centre from cuts and closure. They have a Twitter account @SaveHaringeyYS & a petition. www .ipetitions.com/petition/save-bruce-grove-youth-centre-haringey-youth 

What is happening in Haringey is happening across the country. Labour are committed to following Tory spending plans, so can’t even pretend to be an effective opposition. Our local MP David Lammy is resolutely silent about the decimation of local services, and has supported war-criminal Tony Blair in cautioning Labour to appeal to the middle ground and not adopt a left wing agenda. Lammy is more concerned in shoring up support for his ambitions to be London mayor than in fighting for his constituents in Tottenham.

We need a local MP who is not going to shrink from taking on the council and the government. Let this be the year when the main parties get a kicking from those of us who want to see people put before profit and public service before corporate greed. I am standing as a trade unionist, socialist and local activist with a track record of struggle. If you would like to help my campaign, please get in touch:

Call me on 07510 850 836

Please like and share the Facebook page: Jenny Sutton For Tottenham

Follow me on Twitter: @jenny4tottenham

In solidarity,

Jenny Sutton

Parliamentary Candidate for Tottenham (Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition)

Donate to Tottenham Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), Co-Op Bank Sort Code: 089299, Account No: 65388615. Send cheques to TUSC, 16 Ripon Road, London N17