| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Ealing Council Front Page Story | |
| Posted by: | Andrew Steed | |
| Date/Time: | 01/03/15 12:04:00 |
| There are aspects of all the above threads that I agree with! Yes there are unprecedented cuts to local government and there is worse to come, and no party is making a commitment to reverse those cuts. Is the sale of Carlton Road Day Centre forced upon Ealing Council by central government cuts? I would say not: the sale of Day Centres is happening across the UK and the mantra in social services is that you provide users and their carers with 'Personalised Budgets' so they can buy a personalised service themselves. This sounds great but actually can be a nightmare-not all the time admittedly but in this case the list of alternative service providers as recommended by the Council has proved alarming, I give just the one example where carers were shown round a site that had no changing facilities. When this was queried they were told that the local shopping arcade had such facilities. Ultimately as we have argued in Council, and indeed at the local elections last May, Ealing Council is responsible for how it spends its money. So in the same way they have decided not to increase Council Tax (good), they also decided to give themselves a pay rise and increase the Special Responsibility Allowance (bad). Last week we presented an amendment to the Labour Budget that saved money from the Marketing and Communications Budget and proposed a cut in Councillor Allowances. The saved revenue would have resulted in Carlton Road and the Solace Centre in Ealing remaining open. We even suggested that the sale of Carlton Road goes ahead, and part of the revenue is put towards a new day centre, thus preserving the Carlton Road community. Cllr Andrew Steed |