The link to the consultation on the TfL website is here.
For instance, at Preston Road, opening hours will be reduced to 0645-1130 from 06:30 to 8pm! Station users will have to rely on the Oyster machines outside these hours and those with bulky luggage or those needing help to access the underground will be out of luck.
Ealing Trades Council is organising a protest on Saturday 18th September at 12noon outside Royal Bank of Scotland in High Street, Ealing Broadway ( next to the old Post Office)
All the anger has now been turned on benefit claimants and public sectors workers and away from the bankers like RBS who have taken billions of pounds of our money and are still paying themselves massive bonuses – lets put it back where it belongs and make them pay for a crisis of their making!
Please come along and join our protest
The next local meeting to plan action against the cuts (organised by Brent Trades Union Council) is on Wednesday 8th September at 7.30 at the Apollo Club, 375 High Road Willesden NW10 2JR. We would encourage people to attend and also to plan their response to the cuts.
Service users and user group representatives are encouraged to attend.
TUC web page on cuts
Some of the UK’s poorest families have been hit by more than 100 unfair spending cuts during the first 100 days of the new Government, a TUC analysis of departmental spending reveals today (Wednesday).
The TUC research, published in advance of the 100 day anniversary of the coalition Government tomorrow (Thursday), shows that cuts which impact more on the poorest families in the UK have been made across the board in services including education, health, housing, welfare and social care.
Examples of cuts the TUC believes are unfair include:
* Free school meals – The cancelled measure would have extended entitlement to free school meals to about 500,000 families in work on low pay from September this year. Cost £125m.
* Every child a reader – This programme to provide early support to children with literacy difficulties (focussed on inner-city schools) will be cut by at least £5m and its future is not guaranteed.
* City Challenge Fund – This programme aimed to provide extra support to under-performing children in the most deprived areas, but has been cut by £8m this year.
* Building Schools for the Future – This scrapped programme was the biggest-ever school buildings investment plan. The aim was to rebuild or renew nearly every secondary school in England. Cost £7.5bn.
* Housing benefit – Nearly a million (936,960) households will lose around £624 a year as a result of changes to housing benefit. Londoners will be worst hit.
* Homes and Communities Agency – Cuts to programmes including Kickstart (for restarting stalled house building programmes), affordable housing, gypsy and traveller support and Housing Market Renewal (improvements to housing in deprived areas). Cost £450m.
* Young Person’s Guarantee – £450m has been cut from the Guarantee, which will be abolished in April 2011. This Guarantee promised unemployed young people access to a job, training or work after six months of unemployment.
* Working Neighbourhood Fund – This fund, which aimed to help unemployed people in deprived areas to move into work, has been cut by £49.9m.
* Domestic Violence Protection Orders – Scheme to create two-week banning orders so that victims of domestic abuse can look for protection in the safety of their own house.
The TUC is calling on the Government to reconsider its plan of swingeing spending cuts to public services, and focus instead on other ways to reduce the deficit, such as a Robin Hood Tax on financial transactions that could raise up to £20bn a year.
The TUC is also a member of a coalition, which includes Barnardo’s, Oxfam and Save the Children, who want the Government to guarantee that any future budget cuts will be put through rigorous fairness testing – or a Fairness Test – by the Treasury, to ensure that vulnerable people, low-paid workers, women and children are not left to bear the brunt of spending cuts.
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: ‘Before the election we were told that cuts could be achieved through efficiency savings, that the most vulnerable would be protected and front-line services preserved. These pledges have not lasted 100 days.
‘What makes this worse is that these cuts are doing the opposite of what the Government intends. Far from securing the economic recovery, they are slamming on the economic brakes. Growth will be well below potential and there is growing risk of a double-dip recession.
‘We can only conclude that at least parts of the coalition are using the deficit as an excuse to secure the cuts in public services that they know that voters would have overwhelmingly rejected if faced with a manifesto that promised slash and burn.
‘There is an alternative with policies designed to promote growth and to close the deficit with taxes that target those who did so well out of the boom years and have have already escaped the recession.
‘The TUC wants a Fairness Test to be introduced by the Treasury to ensure that cuts do not unfairly impact on the poorest in society – which would increase inequality in a Britain which is already at its most divided in income levels for half a century.’
Every day the coalition government announces further cuts in our public services and attacks on the jobs and conditions of those who work in them. Although the problem was not caused by nurses, teachers or local government workers, they are expected to pay for it. Brent Trades Union Council recognises the urgent need to oppose this. Following on from our successful public meeting on July 28th (reported in your edition of 5th August), we are holding an organising meeting to take the campaign forward. The meeting will be at 7.30 p.m. on Wednesday 25th August at the Willesden Trades and Labour Hall at 375 High Road, Willesden, NW10 2JR. It is open to all who oppose the government’s programme of cuts and privatisation, and will be an important opportunity for service users and workers to discuss how we can link up and resist this attack.
Pete Firmin
President, Brent Trades Union Council
If you know of cuts already happening locally please pass on details so we can discuss concretely how to build the campaign. Please e-mail info@brenttuc.org.uk or leave a message on 07092 2545883.
The Council has to find £6.9m of cuts this year. In the meantime, Labour Councillors are planning another jolly in a luxury hotel in Buckinghamshire – the story is here. At the very least, contribute to the local economy by having the meeting in a Brent hotel.
Fortnightly bin collections could be a reality in Brent – the link is here.
Thank you for the invite and apologies for not being able to provide a speaker.
BA’s latest offer was rejected by our members by a margin of 2 to 1, this being the 4th time our members have rejected proposals that go nowhere being satisfactory. Only 15% of cabin crew support Walsh’s impositions.
We have had 22 days of industrial action, our branch secretary has been sacked, another senior shop steward has been sacked. Another 6 members of the branch committee have spurious allegations hanging over their heads that are a year old. Nine members have been sacked, with a further 50 suspended; suspensions and sackings continue weekly.
This is against a backdrop of savings we have agreed to the tune of £90 million.
Walsh’s real agenda, which is becoming absolutely apparent to all, is the destruction of BASSA, the biggest trade union branch in the country. We have approximately 11,500 members.
As you know, we have been subject to some of the most ludicrous legal decisions, especially the ruling last Xmas.
We are resolute. We will be reballoting for further industrial action shortly and will continue to stand up against this corporate bully until a negotiated settlement is reached.
We ask that you support our struggle as the first battle in the war that is coming from Cameron and Clegg, where decent working people, private sector and public sector have their livelihoods under attack.
Thank you.
This was featured on this evening’s London Tonight. The Willesden and Brent Times story is here.
We voted for a Labour Council. I want it to lead the resistance to the cuts. Nine thousand pounds could fund a part-time worker to (say) work with disabled children. There are 81 Brent Council jobs at risk.
I hope that they will agree that now was not the time to do this. Please apologise and pay the money back, and lead the campaign against the cuts
We can beat them, so don’t join them.
Brent TUC has endorsed an anti-cuts statement in the Guardian – the link is here. I call on Brent Council’s Labour Group to do the same.
