Council House Blockaded

Early this morning before the Council House opened and hours before the publicly announced blockade at 11am, protesters barricaded the Council House main entrances.

We are taking this action because austerity is economically backward and is not helping the economy[1]. Furthermore, these cuts to Birmingham are highly undemocratic[2] and against the will of most people living in the city - who didn’t vote for this.
The cuts to Birmingham are wrong and that they will devastate thousands of people’s lives. We feel compelled to take action to protect the most vulnerable.

The £101m of cuts to be voted on today in Birmingham include a cut of £32.7 million to the Adults and Communities budget, £23.8 million to Children Young People and Families, and £28.3 million to Leisure Services. High on the hit list are: Voluntary Sector Funding (£4.4m), Children Centres (£3m), Children Residential Care Homes (£1.6m), Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service (£1.4m), Home to School Transport (£1m), Youth Service (£0.47m) and reduced subsidy for the Meals Service (£0.4m).

We must now fight these cuts on the ground service by service. Victories can be won![3] Campaigners across Birmingham have overturned cuts with well-organised campaigns. Parents campaigned and stopped the West-Heath school from becoming an academy; the parents of the children of Charles House respite centre for disabled children beat back cuts by storming constituency meetings and shaming their officials into backing down. The Cotteridge community united to keep the Merrishaw Nursery open and stopped the planned closure.

Make sure you stay in touch and get involved anti cuts campaigns in Birmingham.

Get involved in groups like communities against the cuts. Join on Facebook here and get on the e-mail list here