Havering Unison Lobby Wednesday 25 May
succesful lobby on Wednesday night,.
As well as unison members from our branch and other unison branches there were
people from our sister unions, including the NUT, GMB and Unite, a Labour
Councillor and Jon Crudas MP, and a hell of a lot of young people!
Its always refreshing to see the next generation standing up for
public services, and their presence made the lobby altogether more vibrant and
entertaining, the young boys on their skateboards and bikes doing stunts with
Unite flags went down well with the 100+ people lobbying the council.
There was also a journalist and photographer from the Romford Recorder there so
lets hope we get some good publicity.
See pics below :)
Have a good bank holiday weekend
Previoius post I along with many other members of my branch will (I hope!) be lobbying Havering Council meeting next Wednesday evening (25th 6pm Romford Town Hall), we have already had a mention of the lobby in the local Romford Recorder and today my Branch Secretary (Garry who is quoted in the article below) posted this link on facebook to maximise turnout for the lobby - so I thought I had better blog it and ask you all to come along!
In a nutshell the council are planning to stop the youth service from being one available to all (universal) to only providing some services and those that they do provide will be targeted.
With youth unemployment on the rise and already a lack of facilities for young people, society cannot afford to neglect the next generation (at 30 I am no longer young as Andrew keeps pointing out .. :p) even more.
"Plans for cuts to youth services 'catastrophic'
Thursday, 19 May 2011
CAMPAIGNERS will call for Havering Council to rethink its cuts to youth services in the borough.
Havering Unison is organising a lobby at the Full Council meeting on Wednesday, May 25, supported by fellow unions Unite, GMB and NUT.
The protest, which was called by Unison and Unite members working in the council's Youth Service, is against what they describe as 'catastrophic' cuts.
Proposals include the closure of youth services at Century Youth House in Romford, and of three schools-based youth work units as well as the ending of project work around teenage pregnancy.
Unison's branch secretary, Garry Chick-Mackay, said: "These cuts are the beginning of the end of youth services being open and available to all young people in Havering.
"Our young people deserve to have social spaces away from school and home, where they can spend time with their peers in a safe environment. They deserve youth clubs organised and run by professional youth workers, trained to deal with wide-ranging needs.
"Young people in Havering and elsewhere are being punished by the Government and by this council for economic and political decisions they had no say in.
"We call on the council to step back from these damaging proposals before it's too late."
Havering Council's cabinet member for children and learning, Paul Rochford, explained that all services were being examined, but that no final decision had been made.
He said: "In the last financial year we had to fund a savings gap of around £20m due to Government spending cuts, and we will need to make further savings this year.
"Because of this, we are reviewing all of our services, making sure that they are focused on where they can do the most good, and fair.
"We are currently carrying out a wide consultation with young people, unions and partners to ensure we continue to meet their needs.
"No final decisions have yet been made and we will be publishing a new financial plan in the summer."
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1 comments:
Good luck with the lobby - looks like youth services are being savaged all over the place. The long term social impact hardly bears thinking about.
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