Hackney council's deficit of £40 million means jobs must go, but not the councillors. Between 450-500
employees are to be axed from the council as the attempt to reduce the deficit gets under way. On Monday the council met to decide the fate of which public services should be cut in order to prevent the situation from becoming worse.

The financial crisis has resulted in section 114 being served. This is a Local Government Financial Act (LGF) which runs on a 21 day cycle and basically means there's a ban on spending. Although the LGF Act was lifted today a council employee who works in Waste Management(WB) said
"We're not paying out on anything in case it affects our jobs." They expect the Act to be put back on tomorrow. Waste management has been severely hit with rubbish now piling onto the streets and according to one employee "Ten vehicles out of a fleet of 23 are currently sitting idle waiting to be fixed". When asked what the solution would be he said "Long term we're going to have to get a private company to come in they're called 'Service Team', but don't expect any miracles." Another employer who works in the council and wishes to remain anonymous said "The waste management budget was £5.7 million, it's all gone. There's a pile of rubbish at the bottom of my street which is
stinking to high heaven and covering half the pavement. These are serious health problems. We've got blocked drains and serious flooding going on, we're in a rapid state of collapse and decline." When asking resident Maureen Beer who's lived in Hackney sixty years how she's been affected, she said "I've got a mobility problem so I have difficulty getting around all the rubbish, the streets are filthy and it's affecting my health. I've been in this area all my life and I've watched it year by year deteriorate. It's a total disgrace and these people aren't answerable to anybody."

Elected Unison official and waste management employee Mitch Dublin, who helped organise the rally said "The money is there to fund us in Central Government, the council are talking about a cash freeze, but they seem to have lot's of money for the boys in blue, They've got money for helicopters to fly around and monitor us but they haven't got money for public services." Mitch referred to the massive police presence which accompanied the protest on Monday 6th November, including riot police, who visibly scared some of the families with children. "There's no money for workers, no money to run the council. The government has taken away £50 million pounds worth of grants over the last 3 years, you can link all these issues, like the attacks on students, on schools, hospitals. It's a real national issue."

According to a spokesperson for the Hackney Council " There will be a radical restructuring of the council with the majority of jobs being lost in the environmental services area and people on temporary contracts will be going first." 30 people have already lost their jobs.

When asking John Cornford resident of 20 years and regular attender of council meetings what he felt of the whole issue he said " This council should be forced to resign, why should we trust them to run things in the future if they've made such a mess of it in the past."