Sunday 19 December 2010

PRESS RELEASE

COUNCIL SECRET CUTS AGENDA

Greenwich Council recently agreed to begin making £27m of cuts as part of a cuts package that could eventually top £90m. What Councillors failed to mention was that the Directorate of Culture and Community Services is to be disbanded and that services such as libraries will be transferred out of the Council. While no firm proposals have emerged yet, the options include setting up a "trust", transferring to an established trust or to charities. Their is a real danger to the library services as a result. Previous attempts to cut libraries have been met with huge opposition. When previous plans to close libraries were leaked, the Council were forced into a u-turn following a union led campaign.

Greenwich Save Our Services secretary Paul Callanan accused the council of dishonesty: "This move is not about saving the service, in fact it is a very dishonest and cowardly proposal. As well as not mentioning it at the Council meeting, what the Council are doing is transferring the service out and hoping that somebody else makes the cut. This is what happened when the Glyndon Community Centre was transferred to a trust. Charges have gone up and the Trust now say that staffing costs are too high. We will fight together with library users against this attack on our library service"

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