Budget Notes

He is, of course, right to point out that the Tory-led Government has significantly cut funding to local government.

That is why Durham People’s Assembly reject the local Tory and Lib-Dem opposition to this budget as completely hypocritical and opportunistic given their full support for the Government’s appalling austerity measures.

Since our launch last summer, we have organised protests against the scandal of tax dodging, the use of workfare and zero-hours contracts.

We have also taken part in national demonstrations such as the Save Our NHS protest in Manchester and next month we will join a trade union-led demonstration outside the Lib Dem conference in York.

However, Mr Henig's comments risk obscuring the reality of these latest cuts to local services.

He claims that the majority of the cuts made this year will come from ‘‘back office functions’’, while frontline services will be safeguarded ‘‘as much as possible’’.

In fact, of the £23m which was cut on Thursday, £12.4m comes from the Children and Adults Services budgets and this includes the decommissioning of a service which provides invaluable support for vulnerable and disabled young people. Before Wednesday’s budget, Children and Adults Services had already been cut by a hefty £51m.

Since 2010, we have now seen cuts of more than £135m with still more yet to come. Councillors should ask themselves whether they, as our representatives, are put there to indefinitely implement cuts which will have a devastating impact on our local communities.

We expect councillors to be more than managers of decline.

We do not accept that there are no alternatives and that there are no community strategies which councillors could take that would build alliances with local communities against the Government.

PAUL SIMPSON, BEN SELLERS, KATHRYNE WRAY Durham People’s Assembly