Labour Plans £26.8M in Cuts

A leaked document has revealed that the Labour Council of Greenwich are proposing at least £26.8M of cuts to services.

This story was first reported a couple of days ago by Andrew Gilligan and has been circulated in various local blogs and newspapers but deserves as much publicity as possible so that Greenwich residents are fully aware of the Labour Council's lack of openness and honesty about these cuts.

As my colleague Simon Emmett from Shooters Hill ward points out: "The fact is that the Greenwich Labour party have a history of doing this. Shortly after the 2006 local elections, millions of pounds were cut from services, although much like the spin of the national party, they were dubbed 'efficiency savings'".

These are some of the services that Labour would have hoped to cut by sneaking them through the back door: Street cleaning, the Metropolitan Police Violent & Organised Crime Unit, voluntary sector contracts and so-called "low priority" projects.

Cllr Spencer Drury, leader of the Conservative opposition, said: “Labour have a hidden programme of cuts in place and are refusing to be open about their plans. Greenwich Council’s incompetence and inefficiency is what leads them to have to make these dramatic cuts. They have already wasted £27 million because they are three years late on their new school building programme. There are lots of ways they could have saved money by running themselves differently.”