No rise proposed for council tax rates

Salford residents will not be asked to pay more for their council services this year if a zero per cent rise in council tax is approved by councillors.The no-rise rate for the council's element of the bill will not impact on frontline services paid for by the authority's £220 million budget, say finance chiefs.In 2008, the council announced a major efficiency drive aimed at saving £20 million in three years. This is on course to save more than £30 million, with £16 million annual savings after that.Savings were identified by removing duplication, using better economies of scale and making more use of technology.As well as lower costs in its daily delivery of service, better efficiency enables the council to operate with fewer people. Voluntary redundancies, early retirements and natural turnover have already meant the council is more than halfway to its reduction target of 380 posts.In December, the Audit Commission said the city council was "performing well" and was a good manager of taxpayers' money.The commission scored the council three out of four for performance and financial management, one step short of an overall "excellent" rating.Councillor Bill Hinds, who is responsible for the council's finances, said: "The council is much more efficient today than it was even two years ago and this is why we are able to pass on the savings to residents. On top of our efficiency drive we have improved our council tax collection rate which gives our residents much better value for their money."Despite the challenge of a global recession we have avoided dipping in to our reserves as much as we feared and will balance the books again this financial year with more than £9 million in hand.""I can reassure residents that frontline services or the overall quality of services will not be affected by the savings we are making."Leader of the council, Cllr John Merry added: "Residents will have faced a tough few months with the recession and I have always said the council would do what it could to offer real assistance."Not asking for more council tax than we have to has always been our starting point when we draw up our budget proposals. This year we are in a position where we can share with residents the savings we've made and I'm sure every little helps."Over the past 11 years Salford has seen the 18th lowest cumulative council tax rise nationally. The city has one of the lowest average council tax bills in the country, 280th out of 326 authorities in England.Final council tax bills will include precepts set by the police and fire authorities.

Cameron Scraping the Barrel

By Kevin Maguire on January 22, 2010 5:32 PM Permalink
David Cameron's guilty of distatesful, desperate politics by exploiting the awful Doncaster case of the young sadists to support his Broken Britain propaganda. Tony Blair was guilty of similar opportunisn over Jamie Bulger and I daresay political chancers did it in the late 1960s about Mary Bell. Doncaster social services have serious questions to answer, as Haringey did with Baby Peter, but Britain is self-evidently not suffering widespread social breakdown in which a significant number of kids try to kill other kids or adults go around murdering children. I don't deny the horror of what the 10 and 11-year-olds did in Edlington but Cameron is wrong to explode a rare nightmare into general breakdown. Children's Secretary Ed Balls' aides are highlighting a BBC Look North Yorkshire report of locals in Edlington resenting Cameron's contemptible politics. Balls pointing out the parents of the desentisised, immoral young attackers were married would be as irrelevant as asserting the mam and dad breathe oxgyen if Cameron wasn't simultaneously presenting wedlock as the answer to society's ills. It isn't. Cameron went to a private meeting on Dewsbury's Moorside estate last October to issue a cringe-making apology to the neighbours of kidnapping mother Karen Matthews. The Tory leader admitted on the quiet that he'd been wrong earlier to dub the area "a place where decency fights a losing battle against degradation." The Tories didn't spin the Dewsbury apology to win headlines as they had the original smear. I hope after he's reflected over the weekend, Cameron drives to Edlington and issues another apology - this time to the country as a whole. I for one won't be holding my breath.

Tories twist knife into council staff

Tory council bosses have given a taste of what a future Cameron-led government will mean by torpedoing wage negotiations with unions and telling 1.6 million low-paid workers they will not get any pay rise at all this year.
Council leaders raking in six-figure salaries bluntly dismissed workers' demands for a 2.5 per cent increase on wages that average just £18,000 a year, insisting that local authorities were in an "extremely tight financial situation."
Jan Parkinson, managing director at the Tory authority-controlled Local Government Employers (LGE), proclaimed that "councils are facing a perfect storm of falling revenues and increasing demand for services and many are being forced to cut thousands of jobs to balance the books."
The Tory pay freeze comes as councils from Swindon to Brighton attempt to cut council workers' poverty wages even further to meet equal-pay claims by underpaid women workers, while other councils, such as Birmingham, demand swingeing job cuts.
But union leaders representing hundreds of thousands of workers - from librarians, refuse collectors and cleaners, to carers and lollipop ladies - slated this latest attack as "outrageous."
Public-sector union Unison negotiator Heather Wakefield emphasised that council bosses had not even attempted to talk to the unions.
"There have been no negotiations at all," she revealed.
"We know a pay increase is affordable and with inflation going up to 3 per cent a pay freeze will obviously mean a real-terms pay cut for the two-thirds of council workers who already earn less than £9 an hour."
Ms Wakefield added that "last year Tory shadow chancellor George Osborne said the Tories would not freeze pay for those earning in this pay bracket - but now the Tory LGE is doing just that."
GMB negotiator Brian Strutton stressed that this attack was nothing less than "a political decision by Conservative-controlled local government.
"David Cameron needs to rein in his right-wing mavericks who have the audacity to think that this pay cut is how to deliver local services," he said.
But as the Tories tried to draw battle lines over council workers' pay, GMB rep Mark Wilson reported on a dispute that showed that bosses can be beaten.
"Just last week, Northumberland County Council executives were forced to back down from their own attempt to impose a pay freeze on 1,500 workers after the unions threatened strikes," he reported.
"We made it clear there are strong legal and moral arguments against pay freezes and we are glad that the council decided that this course of action is not appropriate."

Story by Paul Haste.

Help homeless people register for the General Election

The Electoral Commission is reminding people living in temporary accommodation that they don’t need a permanent address to have a say at the next general election. The Commission, the independent elections watchdog, has produced a poster encouraging residents in shelters, hostels and B&Bs to discuss how to register to vote with their accommodation managers.
Peter Wardle, Chief Executive of the Electoral Commission said: “People eligible to vote who are living in temporary accommodation may not realise that they can still register and vote using their temporary address. By displaying this poster and providing a point of contact, accommodation managers can encourage those who are often disconnected from society to have their say.”
The project is being supported by Homeless Link, an umbrella organisation for homeless projects and organisations. Chief Executive Jenny Edwards commented:
“Homeless Link believes it is crucial that those who are experiencing homelessness use their political voice to influence the environment in which they live and the services they use. We welcome the recognition of the importance of homeless people’s votes and are working to increase awareness of voter registration procedures.”
The poster and information leaflets are available from www.dopolitics.org.uk calling 0845 8500 501 reference, order code EC33.
ends/
For further information please contact:Electoral Commission Press office020 7271 0704 / 0530email: press@electoralcommission.org.uk outside office hours 07789 920414

Football legend collects hometown honour

Premiership football star and BBC sports personality for 2009, Ryan Giggs, has been honoured with the freedom of his adopted home city of Salford.
The Wales international and Manchester United winger, from Worsley, joins Nelson Mandela, LS Lowry and David Lloyd George as a previous recipient of the city’s highest honour.
The award was presented to Ryan by the Mayor of Salford, Cllr Roger Lightup, at a civic ceremony at The Lowry, Salford Quays.
Ryan said: "To be given the freedom of Salford, my adopted city, has to rank amongst the greatest honours I have ever received.
"I feel hugely proud and privileged to be recognised in this way and would like to place on record my gratitude to the city fathers for bestowing on me this wonderful tribute.
"I am a proud Welshman and native of Cardiff, but I have for many years looked on Salford as home and to be given this honour means the world to me.
"I’m not sure what the benefits a freeman of the city are, but I do know that it is an accolade I shall always cherish!"
Nominating him, Salford City Council’s lead member of children’s services, Cllr John Warmisham, said: "It’s with great pleasure that I move Ryan Giggs to be awarded the honour of the freedom of the city of Salford.
"Many people only know Ryan Giggs the footballer, but there is so much more to the man than that.
"Ryan adopted Salford as his home city and has become a great ambassador for the city. He also goes quietly about doing charitable work in the city with youth clubs and hospitals and in 2006 he became a UK ambassador for UNICEF.
"He is an ideal role model for young people, a unique sportsman and someone with an awareness of his own good fortune and a desire to use it to help others."
The nomination was seconded by Cllr Derek Antrobus.
He said: "Ryan was brought up in Salford and he has been part of the local community in Swinton all of his life.
"He attended local schools and played for the local youth team, Deans FC and captained Salford Schoolboys.
"It is the contribution to the local community that makes Ryan Giggs a suitable candidate for the honour of freedom of the city.
"He is an inspiration to local people and his national and international achievements have lifted the aspirations of young people in Salford. He is a role model not simply in terms of being a high achiever but also in behaviour."
Mayor of Salford Cllr Roger Lightup added: "Ryan is not only a world class footballer but a Salford resident and I’m delighted we’re able to honour someone of his stature who is proud of their home town.
"Freedom of the city recognises people who have made an exceptional contribution to our community and Ryan has devoted a tremendous amount of his time to work with charities and children over a number of years."
Today's freemen gain no real privileges but they do receive a scroll to mark their status and the pride the city has in them.
The medieval term 'freeman' meant someone who was not the property of a feudal lord, but enjoyed privileges such as the right to earn money and own land.
Town dwellers who were protected by the charter of their town or city were often free - hence the term 'freedom of the city'.
A number of ancient privileges are usually associated with the Freedom - although they are more a product of collective memory than of documented evidence.
For example, freemen of the city of London have a right to herd sheep over London Bridge, to go about the city with a drawn sword, and if convicted of a capital offence, to be hung with a silken rope.
Other advantages are said to have included the right to avoid being press-ganged, to be married in St Paul's Cathedral, buried in the city or to be drunk and disorderly without fear of arrest.

Over 53,000 free books for schools in bid to get young people hooked on reading

£500,000 Government campaign to raise reading standards amongst 11-18 year olds -
- Books include classics like Charlotte Brontё’s Jane Eyre and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, as well as modern favourites -
Schools Secretary Ed Balls and Schools Minister Iain Wright today urged children and young people to make a New Year’s resolution to read more as a hobby in 2010 - as they launch a £500,000 campaign to provide over 53,000 free books for secondary schools.
As the new school term kicks off next week, every secondary school in England will get 15 free books for their school library as part of the Everyone’s Reading campaign being run jointly with the School Library Association.
Around 330 schools with 30 per cent or more pupils eligible for free school meals will get an additional 10 books, as evidence shows that children from low income families tend to have less access to books than their more advantaged peers and tend to spend less time reading for pleasure.
Children's Secretary Ed Balls said:
“There’s nothing better then getting lost in a good book and reading can open up new worlds for young people. It’s a great way to pass the time on the bus into school or whilst waiting to meet friends and it also helps improve your reading skills. There really is no better way to start the New Year.”
Schools Minister Iain Wright added:
“Some children don’t have the same access to books as others, so this campaign aims to give teenager the opportunity to get hooked on reading, with over 53,000 free books on offer across the country.
“I’d encourage teenagers to get involved and make a New Year’s resolution to pick up a good book. There’s some great reads on offer. My personal favourite is, 'How much poo does an elephant do' – it’s funny, it’s full of fascinating trivia, one of my sons finds it hilarious and it has a great title. The book leads you to read other things, which is one of the great delights of reading and literature.”
Schools and students will be able to choose from around 260 great reads – with something for all tastes including:
• classics such as Charlotte Brontё’s Jane Eyre and Bram Stoker’s Dracula,• fun educational titles like Know Your Brain and Bill Bryson’s A Really Short History of Nearly Everything,• quirky books like My Dog is a Carrot and Teach Your Granny to Text & Other Ways to Change the World,• sports themed books like Cup Final Day by England goalkeeper David James and Formula One.
The book list has been specially designed to include plenty of up-to-the-minute titles, the very latest in some fiction series, several modern classics in new guises, and a few tried and tested favourites. There are books targeted both for boys and for girl, for reluctant and struggling readers, for students learning English as an additional language, and some titles to interest older students.
Children's Laureate Anthony Browne said:
"Everyone's Reading is a brilliant project encouraging the enjoyment of reading, a reading culture and a pleasure that will last throughout reader's lives."
Tricia Adams, Chief Executive at the Schools Library Association, said:
“This book giveaway is great news for teenagers and schools across the country. Reading gives children different perspectives on life. It is empowering because through it they can learn new things and develop their reading and personal skills like decision making. I encourage teenagers to pick up a book and get hooked on reading in 2010.”
A survey conducted for the National Year of Reading in 2008 found that over half (62%) of teens have liked reading something so much they have passed it on to a friend or family member. It also found that boys are particularly practical in their approach to reading, with 31% saying that they love reading because it helps them get better at their hobbies (e.g. sports, films or music). It found girls were more pragmatic with 39% saying they loved reading because it is an escape and quiet time they can enjoy on their own.

Teaching unions welcome Labour's school pledge

Teaching unions have urged opposition parties to match new Labour's stance on education after Schools Secretary Ed Balls promised three years of growth for the schools budget.
Speaking on GMTV, Mr Balls guaranteed annual education spending increases of 0.7 per cent "every year, year on year, this year, next year and the year after."
He also highlighted the Conservatives' intention to "cut education this year and next," adding "the reason is that they have got different priorities.
"They want to have an inheritance tax cut which goes to millionaires, which would mean that they could not match us on education spending," he said.
Teaching unions applauded the guarantee in spite of the recessionary drive to make massive savings throughout the public sector.
NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates said: "I welcome the fact that education remains a top priority for the government."
Deputy general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers Martin Johnson called on other political parties to "make similar commitments to our children's future."
As part of the increased budget from September 2011 all key stage one pupils (ages six to seven) struggling with literacy and numeracy would be guaranteed extra tuition.
The NUT said the pledge was "impressive" in the current financial climate, but general secretary Christine Blower also expressed disappointment that the tuition would continue to be "fatally hitched to tests, targets and performance tables."
And Ms Keates warned NASUWT would remain vigilant that the programme did not lead to "pressurising teachers or school staff to do this as an unpaid, voluntary activity."

Story by Lizzie Cocker.

Health staff see through two-faced Cameron

Health workers' unions have hammered "two-faced" Conservative leader David Cameron for claiming to support the NHS while allowing fellow Tories to rubbish the health service.
Firing the first shot of the general election campaign by launching the Tories' health manifesto, the millionaire Etonian shamelessly accused Labour of failing to tackle health inequalities between rich and poor.
Ignoring two decades of Thatcherite attacks on the NHS, Mr Cameron proclaimed that such inequalities "are as wide in 21st century Britain as they were in Victorian times.
"This is one of the most unjust, unfair and frankly shocking things about life in Britain today," he declared.
He insisted that the Conservatives' sudden heartfelt concern for the poorest would see a Tory government pour cash into maternity services in the deprived areas to "banish" inequality.
"Today, the Conservatives are the party of the NHS."
NHS workers' union leaders greeted the claim with incredulity, pointing out that, despite the Tory leader's "posing," voters' memories of the Conservative government's attacks on the health service were still vivid.
Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail emphasised that "the Tories face two ways on the NHS," and highlighted how Mr Cameron was "offering warm words, while influential Tories like Daniel Hannan would like to dismantle the NHS for the benefit of private health-care companies."
Ms Cartmail explained that the MEP was still "touring American TV studios saying that he wouldn't wish the NHS on anybody and that it is 'a 60-year-old mistake,' which is an affront to the hard-working staff and the thousands of people who would not be alive today, but for the NHS.
"Thirty years ago, Thatcher promised that the NHS was safe in her hands, and what followed was a massive starvation of funds that was only reversed when the Labour government came to power," she added.
Health workers' union Unison leader Dave Prentis also lost no time in demolishing Mr Cameron's claim to be a candidate of "change.
"It is a bit rich to see the Tories steal a slogan from the Obama campaign when the likes of Hannan publicly attack the NHS.
"The Tories' track record is one of allowing our hospitals to crumble, of tax breaks for the rich and letting the free market ruin people's lives - that shows the true Tory thinking, but with Cameron, it's all style and no substance."
Mr Prentis was convinced that "the public won't be fooled by Cameron's posing, because they know that it is not about what you say, but about what you do."

Story by Paul Haste in The Morning Star.

Proof that Cameron's Tories are as racist and sexist as ever

This article by Bob Roberts from the Daily Mirror was brought to my attention.

Tory promises they have changed have been exposed as a sham.
This calendar of calamities shows how party members have continually been caught insulting voters and making racist remarks or sexist jokes.
Conservative leader David Cameron has tried to ditch the "Nasty Party" image and said: "Our members are the most socially-engaged, the most civic-minded, the most neighbourly bunch of people in Britain."
But this dossier of shame, compiled by Labour - called A Year In The Nasty Party - proves that the Tories are still as bad as ever.

January 15, 2009: Chester Conservative councillor Richard Lowe apologies after going to a New Year fancy-dress party dressed as Madeleine McCann.

January 28: Nottinghamshire Tory councillor David Taylor is criticised for hanging a topless calendar in his office.

February 25: Cumbria county council leader Tim Stoddard says that helping poor families pay for school uniforms is a waste of money.

February 28: Bolton Conservative councillor Bob Allen apologises after being slammed for posting a picture of a gorilla alongside a comment about an Asian colleague on a blog.

March 9: Leicestershire Tory councillor Robert Fraser claims gypsies would "stick a knife in you as soon as look at you".

March 11: Peterborough Conservative councillor Wayne Fitzgerald calls voters "idiots" and "morons" and tells one to "boil their head" after they disagreed with his plans for a new water park.

April 14: Derbyshire Tory councillor Patrick Clark calls gay people "sexual deviants".

April 30: A Conservative councillor in Essex, Chris Walker, apologises for saying British women should walk nude in the street to make Islamic men commit suicide because their religion forbids them from seeing any naked woman other than their wife.

May 27: Former Conservative Party candidate Ross Coates says "all women should be sterilised" to stop them getting pregnant at work, employment tribunal is told.

May 29: The leader of East Sussex county council, Peter Jones, says he is "good value for money" after receiving £91,000 in allowances and expenses in just one year.

June 12: Tory MP Peter Lilley attacks the help given to pregnant women, saying payments for food and baby equipment are "complete rubbish".

June 24: Kidderminster Conservative councillor Mumshad Ahmed, who twice drove while disqualified, apologises after a court bans him from driving for two years.

July 2: An investigation blames Stretford Conservative councillor Ian Mullins for a vicious internet campaign against a female colleague that compared her to Hitler.

July 7: London Assembly member Brian Coleman refuses to publicise expenses saying "only the mad, bad and the sad" wanted to see. He adds: "I'm not pandering to mob rule."

August 21: Gosport Conservative chairman Alan Scard says he would only pick a woman to stand in one of the party's safest seats if she was good looking. Asked if he was happy to support David Cameron's call to put more women in Parliament, he says: "If they are attractive, yeah, I would go for it."

August 26: Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan describes the NHS as a "60-year-old mistake" and hails Enoch Powell as his political hero.

September 1: Oxford University Conservative Association is condemned after students hold a sick competition to see who could tell the most offensive racist joke.

September 9: Tooting councillor Susan John-Richards quits the Conservative Party after claiming she endured three years of sexual discrimination from the Tory group.

October 15: A former Mayor of Brent, councillor Bertha Joseph, is suspended after taking money intended for a charity ball and spending it on clothes.

October 22: Former adviser to Margaret Thatcher and vicechairman of Goldman Sachs Lord Griffiths defends bankers' bonuses and says taxpayers should "tolerate the inequality".

November 2: Disgraced Tory MP David Wilshire compares the treatment of politicians over their expenses claims to the plight of Jews in Nazi Germany.

November 20: An Orpington councillor, Peter Hobbins, is suspended from the Conservative Party after sending emails ranting that Asian prospective parliamentary candidates do not have "normal sounding" English names.

December 7: Tory candidate for Dorset South changes his quadrupled-barrelled name, Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, to Richard Drax on posters.

December 31: MEP Daniel Hannan says that no "sane" person would support the NHS.