Protect the most vulnerable!

PUBLIC MEETING

Saturday 21st January, 12 – 2PM

Swinton Royal British Legion, Cheetham Road, Swinton, M27 4UQ

These meetings have been called in response to Council proposals to withdraw funding for at least two of the seven day centres in the city that provide support for elderly people and those with learning difficulties. Such cuts will hit the most vulnerable hardest – something the Authority pledged not to do when the budget was set last March. One of the centres due for potential closure Humphrey Booth in Ordsall underwent an expensive refurbishment only 18 months ago.

If we link this to possible further cuts in youth services, intermediate home care and welfare rights services, we can see that the Council is now looking firmly at cuts in frontline services that directly support Salford’s most vulnerable. This is despite continued funding for Media City, Chapel Street regeneration and other prestige projects.

This is also despite Council Leader John Merry declaring when considering the Budget only last February that, “When coming up with these proposals, we have done all we can to protect the most vulnerable living in the city.”

This campaign is already attracting a significant layer of community support and media coverage - including from the Vicar of St. Clement's Church in Ordsall where the first meeting is being held. I would ask you to try and come along.

Manchester 30 November 2011 Strikers, pickets and protest !

Watch a video of the 30 November protest
here.

NEWSLETTER November 2011 (No. 5)

Here is the fifth issue of our newsletter.  If you would like copies to distribute to friends, at work, church or in the pub call 07817434240, email salfordagainstcuts@gmail.com or print copies yourself (click on each page and select Print...). If you would like to contribute something for the next issue send before Monday 5th December, by email or to  Salford Against the Cuts, c/o Salford UNISON Offices, 445 Chorley Road, Swinton, M27 9UQ

Bexley Square Anniversary

1^st October 1931: the date when 10 000 unemployed in Salford stood up for their rights, and were battered by police for having the temerity to do so.

At the time working class areas of Britain were in revolt against the cuts being made by the National Government of Ramsay McDonald.  A fortnight earlier the Atlantic fleet had mutinied at Invergordon, and huge working class demonstrations were taking place in Glasgow, London, Manchester and smaller towns in the run-up to the vote in Parliament.

Organised by the local branch National Unemployed Workers Movement the march left Liverpool Street with the intention of demonstrating outside the Salford City Council meeting in the Town Hall in Bexley Square, where a deputation would meet the mayor to put the demands of the movement.  Instead, they were ambushed by police on foot and on horseback swinging batons; twelve arrests were made and five NUWM leaders received prison sentences.

Eighty years on the parallels with 1931 are striking: then as now, the capitalists were trying to offload the cost of a crisis which was not of their making onto working people; the government cut the salaries of teachers and civil servants, the very groups whose pensions are under attack today; and it was all done in the name of a National – or Coalition – government, just to show how ‘we are all in the same boat’.  This should not surprise us – until we rid ourselves of their rule, the capitalists will resort time and again to these attacks.

We remember and salute the sacrifices of a previous generation.  Our May Day protest this year took place in the Square, and our feeder march on 2^nd October paused to commemorate the Battle, eighty years and one day after it happened.  Pressure from SAC has ensured that a plaque will soon adorn the Town Hall to mark the day 10 000 marched in Salford.

If you want to know more, read Edmund and Ruth Frow’s account ‘The Battle of Bexley Square’, available from the Working Class Movement Library, price £2.  This is the definitive account by a participant.  Also available is the Salford Socialist Party’s pamphlet ‘The Battle of Bexley Square – fighting cuts and unemployment in the 1930s’, which attempts to relate those events to the present day struggle against the  cuts.  Priced at £2 or £3 solidarity price it is available from Paul Gerrard at pgerrard2001@yahoo.co.uk

Greater Manchester TUC Pre-Strike Rally and Fundraiser

Called and supported by GMATUC, Salford TUC, Salford City Unison,
Salford Against Cuts and a host of other union branches and campaign groups.

ALL MONEY RAISED WILL GO TO THE NORTH WEST PENSIONERS CONVENTION
 
3 Course Meal, music, entertainment and guest speakers from the striking unions.

 BOOK YOUR TICKETS IN ADVANCE - THEY ARE SELLING FAST!!!

In order to bring workers and service users together before the Day of Action on 30^th November, Greater Manchester TUC is hosting an evening of food, music, entertainment and discussion on Thursday 17^th November. We want to create as much support as possible for the action on the 30^th as well as raiding funds for a cause that directly relates to what we are fighting for. The cause of pensioners and the cause of a decent retirement with dignity and enjoyment.
 
Please come down and show your support on what should be a fantastic evening.

Thursday 17th of November, 7.00pm.
Saffron Restaurant,
Cheetham Hill,
107 Cheetham Hill Road,
Manchester,
M8 8PY 
0161 834 1222 ‎ 
saffronuk.com

£8 Unemployed/Low waged/Student
£15 Waged
£20 Solidarity

Candle Lit Vigil

Wednesday 14th September 2011
8pm
Lancaster House
Lancaster Road
Salford, M6

The residents of Lancaster House (a training and resettlement centre which provides temporary accommodation for single men who are in need of housing with support) invite you to join them in a candlelit vigil on Wednesday 14th September 2011, at 8pm. The venue Lancaster House, Lancaster Road, Salford, M6. There is a large car park to the rear of the building.

I am sure you are aware that Salford Council has withdrawn the funding to Lancaster House and the building will close on 30th September 2011 unless the campaign can get the council to overturn their decision.

Closure of Lancaster House will mean that 38 vulnerable men, some experiencing mental health illness and all with complex needs will potentially be made homeless.

Show your Support.

Please, please, please give up a couple of hours of your time to show your support for these guys, who I know will really appreciate your efforts. After which you can return to your warm and cosy homes, something they well might not be able to do, come 1st October 2011.

The residents and staff will provide refreshments and of course candles! Please spare your time.

The Residents and staff of Lancaster House need your support!

Despite the decision taken by Councillor Connor, Salford's Lead Member for Housing last week to close Lancaster House, the Campaign goes on.

Those involved in the Campaign held a meeting tonight to discuss the next steps. In addition to a legal challenge, the Campaign will be looking to organise further demos and events in the coming six weeks in the hope that the Council will change its mind before 30th September when the funding is withdrawn. For the sake of £190,000 per year, the Council may end up condemning 38 people to homelessness. We need to change their minds!

What can you do?

There will be demos and protests coming up that you can join in with, but for the time being we are asking you to do two very simple things:

1. Please go online and sign the petition. Over 8,000 names have already gone to Salford Council and to Downing Street, but the more they have the better. You can find the peitition at - http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savelancasterhouse/

2. Email your Councillor and ask them to make sure this decision is "Scrutinised". Any decision made by the Council (unless it has been debated by the Full Council - which this hasn't) can be "scrutinised" by the relevant Committee. In this case that would be the Sustainable Regeneration Scrutiny Committee. They can make a decision that an issue should be debated by Full Council i.e. all the Councillors rather than a select few.

The Save Lancaster House Campaign is hoping to get the decision debated at the next Full Council meeting on 25th September, but in order for that to happen we need councillors to ask for it to be scrutinised and we need to ask them to do that.

I have copied the emails I have just sent  below in case you're not sure what to write. It does come across better if you personalise it, so please just use these as an idea. You can find the email address and phone numbers for your elected councillors at - http://www.salford.gov.uk/findyourcouncillors.htm

Thanks,

Steven North
Secretary, Salford Against the Cuts

Template Emails

Email to Ward Councillors

Dear Councillor (insert name of Councillor)

As my elected councillor I would like to ask you to request that the decision taken by Councillor Connor, Lead Member for Housing to withdraw funding for Lancaster House be brought to the next Sustainable Regeneration Scrutiny Committee on 5th September.

 My grounds for this request are as follows:

- the closure of Lancaster House will have an entirely negative effect on those people who currently reside there and those who may need the service in the future, who must be considered amongst the most vulnerable people in Salford;

- in my view discussions taking place on this important issue should have been open to the public; the people of Salford expect the most vulnerable members of the community to be properly cared for, and in this respect I believe the council has failed to represent the wishes of the community

- since the council has a legal obligation of care to such vulnerable people, this decision could result in Salford City Council being taken to High Court; if the High Court then support a Judicial Review, this could cost the Council £50,000 that could be avoided if the High Court can be avoided. As a council tax payer I would see this as a waste of public funds.


 I hope you can help with this request.

 Yours,

(name and address)

===========================================

Email to Councillor Dawson - Chair of the Sustainable Regeneration Scrutiny Committee (Councillor.Dawson@salford.gov.uk)

Dear Councillor Dawson

I would like to ask that the decision taken by Councillor Connor, Lead Member for Housing to withdraw funding for Lancaster House be brought to the next Sustainable Regeneration Scrutiny Committee on 5th September.

My grounds for this request are as follows:

- the closure of Lancaster House will have an entirely negative effect on those people who currently reside there and those who may need the service in the future, who must be considered amongst the most vulnerable people in Salford;

- in my view discussions taking place on this important issue should have been open to the public; the people of Salford expect the most vulnerable members of the community to be properly cared for, and in this respect I believe the council has failed to represent the wishes of the community

- since the council has a legal obligation of care to such vulnerable people, this decision could result in Salford City Council being taken to High Court; if the High Court then support a Judicial Review, this could cost the Council £50,000 that could be avoided if the High Court can be avoided. As a council tax payer I would see this as a waste of public funds.

 I hope that this decision can be subject to proper scrutiny.

 Yours,

(name and address)

===========================================

Email to Scrutiny email address at Salford Council (scrutiny.support@salford.gov.uk)

Hi

I would like to ask that the decision taken by Councillor Connor, Lead Member for Housing to withdraw funding for Lancaster House be brought to the next Sustainable Regeneration Scrutiny Committee on 5th September.

My grounds for this request are as follows:

- the closure of Lancaster House will have an entirely negative effect on those people who currently reside there and those who may need the service in the future, who must be considered amongst the most vulnerable people in Salford;

- in my view discussions taking place on this important issue should have been open to the public; the people of Salford

- since the council has a legal obligation of care to such vulnerable people, this decision could result in Salford City Council being taken to High Court; if the High Court then support a Judicial Review, this could cost the Council £50,000 that could be avoided if the High Court can be avoided. As a council tax payer I would see this as a waste of public funds.

 I hope that this decision can be subject to proper scrutiny.

 Yours,

(name and address)