A SENIOR councillor has defended calls for a “no cuts” budget.

Brighton and Hove City councillor Ollie Sykes said he and his Green Party colleagues were considering refusing to vote for any budget advocating cuts because “enough was enough”.

At a Brighton and Hove Green Party general meeting last weekend, 56 of the 57 members present voted in favour of a motion calling on the party not to support any 2015/16 budget which would make cuts to services.

Afterwards, Green councillor Geoffrey Bowden reminded his party that it has an extraordinary general meeting in February, where “the real decisions are going to be made”.

And Coun Sykes has now said it is only he and his colleagues who are properly addressing the possible devastation of £26 million worth of savings.

He said: “Unlike other parties in the city, the Greens are squaring up to the devastation that could be caused this year by the sheer enormity of government cuts to our city.

“They are cuts which endanger people’s livelihoods, their wellbeing and our crisis-ridden NHS, and could ultimately cost lives as well as destroying local democracy.

“We’ve vowed to campaign against them, to demand that the Government reinstates the financial support it is withdrawing, and to consider refusing to vote for any council budget that contained such cuts.”

The current proposed council budget would see £26 million of savings found in 2015/16 and a failure to set a balanced budget would leave Brighton and Hove City Council facing intervention from government officials.

To save money, council officers have been looking at increasing some charges at libraries, beach huts and leisure services as well as cuts to other services including children’s centres.

Coun Sykes said he was proud of the way his party operated in “an open, democratic process” rather than having budget plans drawn up by a small number of members behind closed doors, like his rivals.

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