Ian Ross, Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for Worthing West, has called for the public to join forces and sign up to Unison’s “a million voices for public services” campaign to protect local public services as it is revealed that nearly 300 jobs have been slashed by the Conservatives at West Sussex County Council over the last two years.
According to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request there have been 287 redundancies at West Sussex County Council during the period 1st April 2008 18th March 2010.
The FOI request states “The service redesign process that we are going through at the moment will result in changes to the organisation and we can expect this to result in further changes to the types and number of posts that we have. Until we have completed our detailed planning we cannot be clear exactly how many post reductions we may need and what this may mean in terms of redundancies in the future.”
Ian Ross, Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for Worthing West, explained:
“The Conservatives at West Sussex County Council are purposely hiding how many jobs they will slash so close to the General Election. Everyone knows the Conservatives can’t be trusted when it comes to public services.”
“The recession has hit the government’s finances hard and public debt has grown. Cutting back public service spending and putting our services in the hands of private companies through more privatisation puts all our communities at risk – something the Conservatives are good at.”
“What’s more, when times are tough we need good local services more than ever. They help support communities, help people back into work, help give our children the best start in life and help care for our sick and elderly. And by putting money into local services, we help kick-start economic growth. Big spending cuts are not inevitable; they are a political choice that we can speak out against and that’s why as a Unison member I am calling on the public to join forces by signing up to Unison’s campaign to protect the public services we all rely on.”
Further information on Unison’s a million voices for public services campaign can be found at: http://www.unison.org.uk/million/
