WITH East Sussex County Council joining Northamptonshire Council in offering only the legal minimum of services it is clear there is a full scale crisis in local authority funding.

Austerity is biting in the Tory controlled shires as much as in urban areas.

In Brighton and Hove, as in other cities, we know that the Labour council is planning more cuts for 2019. This is extraordinary.

Conservative councils are going bust while Labour councils which oppose austerity continue to carry out cuts imposed by the Conservative government.

It seems Labour councillors are better at managing austerity than their Tory counterparts.

But rather than doing the central government’s dirty work, wouldn’t it be better for the council to take a stand against cuts?

Brighton and Hove has £108 million in useable reserves as of March 2018. Councillors should call on these to produce a legal, needs-based budget that not only provides for the council’s statutory duties to the community’s most vulnerable, but also goes further.

With such a budget the council could bring back some services already lost under austerity, the decimated youth service for example.

Of course, this would also have to be joined by a campaign for fair funding from central government.

Using the reserves would allow the council time to build a campaign while protecting its services.

If our city took a stand it could set an example for other councils across the country to oppose cuts nationally.

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, and this is the only way local councillors can meaningfully fight austerity.

Connor Rosoman
St John’s Road, Hove