Last weekend for petition signing against Notttingham City Council cuts before 5th March 2012

Please see attached amended leaflet Notts SOS supporters will be handing out this Saturday 3rd March 2012, from 12 – 2pm in the Market Square, Nottingham. Saturday will also be a last chance to get names on the petition so if you haven’t already signed or if you have completed petition forms to hand in, please come along and visit the stall.

Leaflet: Know the Cuts Notts SOS March 2012

£20 MILLION CUTS IN NOTTINGHAM!* Many city residents will be unaware of yet another year of further proposed cuts to our vital public services, increased costs to pay for them, and axing of local jobs. Below we highlight 10 headline proposals in the City Council budget for coming years. When they tell you “We’re all in this together”, …..you can see its not true.
* Council Tax up 3.49%
* Selling Portland Leisure Centre
* Closing two Older People’s Centres;
1) Marlstones Elderly Person’s Home, Bullwell
2) Willows Centre, Beechdale
* Closing the Museum of Nottingham Life, Brewhouse Yard
* Stopping food waste collections
* Closing nine recycling centres
* Reducing funding to young people support group Connexions
* Ending grant to the International Community Centre that provides facilities for 114 voluntary groups
* 195 Council job cuts
£24 MILLION MORE CUTS BY SPRING 2015!

Also join us in our lobby of the Council meeting on Monday 5th March that will set its budget, at either 12.30 – 1.30pm or 5pm – 7pm, or both if you can make it.

* All figures taken from Council Budget Proposal for 2012-13

And it’s happening all over the country… read this report from London

Haringey Alliance for Public Services
www.hapsnews.net

Press release, 28.2.2012

Haringey residents and workers march to defend local public services under threat

On Tuesday February 28th 150 residents and workers from a wide range of local concerned organisations marched to the Civic Centre to defend vital local services and jobs under threat. The demonstration, co-ordinated by the Haringey Alliance for Public Services, demanded Councillors reject proposals for another £21m of savage Government-driven cuts.

After assembling at 6pm at Wood Green Library, the anti-cuts protestors then marched to the Haringey Civic Centre. From 6.45 to 7.30pm there was a noisy rally outside the windows to the Council Chamber where Councillors at the full Council session were discussing the latest unfair, unnecessary and unacceptable cuts proposals. The rally included an ‘open mike’ session with a range of heartfelt and powerful speeches – and chants of ‘No Ifs, No Buts – No Public Sector Cuts’ and They Say Cut Back, We Say Fight Back’. Members and reps of the following organisations spoke: The 684 Centre Users, Haringey Defend Council Housing, Haringey UNISON, Haringey Federation of Residents Associations, Day-Mer, Defend Haringey’s Health Services Coalition, Haringey Friends of Parks Forum, Wards Corner Community Coalition, and a range of individuals.

The speakers described how the latest £21m cuts come on top of the scandalous and destructive £40m cuts pushed through last year resulting in a wave of closures of centres, loss of front line services and jobs, and more and more ‘outsourcing’ and privatisation. This year’s cuts continue in the same vein, with all departments suffering reduced budgets. On top of the Council cuts the local NHS faces massive underfunding and privatisation threats, and welfare benefits are being cut causing increased hardship and homelessness among vulnerable sections of our communities.

Many speakers pointed out that this avoidable tragedy for Haringey residents is due to the Government’s determination to underfund and undermine public services as they seek to force them to close or be privatised. Anger was expressed that vital public services are being sacrificed to bail out the bankers and banking system which caused the current economic crisis – yet massive ‘fat cat’ bonuses and over £100billion corporate tax avoidance scams continue.

However, many speakers also took heart from the many local and national protests and strikes over the last 12 months, including the recent 1.5 million-strong public sector pensions strikes, the growing chorus of opposition to the Government’s threats to the NHS, the successful use of picketing and direct action to defeat pay cuts in the construction industry, and the growing disarray of Government ‘workfare’ forced-labour schemes.

‘This local Haringey demonstration was one of hundreds of similar protests and mobilisations this week at Town Halls throughout the UK. It shows that the fight back against the Government’s ideological assault on our vital public services continues. We demand adequate resources for Haringey and pledge to continue to defend Council services, the NHS, welfare benefits and all the other rights and services fought for by previous generations.’
– Dave Morris, Haringey Alliance for Public Services

For more information check out our webpages or contact: haps@haringey.org.uk

Join us in fighting the cuts – Notts SOS update for week beginning 27th Feb 2012

Last Thursday, Nottinghamshire County Council voted through its latest
cuts budget with the “independents” and LibDems tagging along with the
Tory majority.

Nevertheless,The fight against the cuts continues. In Nottinghamshire
they still need to be implemented and, across the river in the city,
it is just over a week before Nottingham City Council meet to agree
their budget. We’ll be there making it clear that we’re not happy with
the way they are meekly following central government’s diktats and
passing on the costs of the crisis to the ordinary people of
Nottingham.

Come along and get involved!

—–

BOYCOTT WORKFARE

Workfare is the name applied to a number of government programmes in
which people on workfare are expected to work without pay. Instead of
a living wage, they receive only JSA – a tiny £53 a week for the
under-25s – far below minimum wage.

Workfare means those in paid positions may see their jobs replaced by
this unpaid labour. Why would a company pay for people to do these
jobs when they can get free labour from the Job Centre?

There has been a lot of controversy about this over the last week,
following (ultimately successful) protests against Tescos which was a
participant in the “Work Experience Programme”.

In solidarity with Liverpool Uncut’s action against workfare on
Saturday 3rd March, Boycott Workfare has called a national day of
action against workfare. Notts Uncut are organising a demonstration as
part of this in Nottingham.

So many high street stores are involved in taking on forced unpaid
labour that there is plenty of choice – Asda, Holland & Barrett,
Primark, HMV, and Topshop to name but a few.

We can put a stop to this forced unpaid labour – Waterstones,
Sainsburys and TK Maxx have all recently announced that they would no
longer take unpaid placements – the other companies just need a bit
more encouragement to stop this exploitation.

Meet outside Wilkinsons, Parliament Street, 12pm

Protest details: http://s.coop/nottsworkfare

More on workfare: http://www.boycottworkfare.org

—————

OCCUPY NOTTINGHAM

The occupation of Nottingham’s Market Square has now been ongoing for
more than 4 months. The campers are inviting people along to an
outreach and social event in Sneinton. This is an opportunity to enjoy
a relaxed informative insight into the economy, the Occupy movement,
and its aims, achievements and plans the future.

What to expect:

Speakers/Open Debate: 7-8pm
Food, Music & Poetry: 8-9pm
Networking/Open Floor: 9-10pm

…and much much more!

This is a free event organised by the Occupy Nottingham Outreach
working group, and everyone is invited to get involved or attend for
an insightful, educational and fun evening!

The event will be held at Sneinton Hermitage Community Centre,
Sneinton Boulevard, NG2 4GN

More details: http://occupy-nottingham.org.uk

—————

CITY COUNCIL CUTS

On Monday March 5th, Nottingham City Council will be meeting to agree
its budget, slashing jobs and services and hiking council tax.

Notts SOS and Nottingham City Unison will be holding a join
demonstration outside the Council House from 12.30pm-1.30pm.

Unison are also holding a smaller demonstration at Loxley House on
Wednesday 29th February in defence of the essential car user allowance
which has already been cutback and is likely to be attacked further.

—————

ONE MILLION SIGNATURES FOR EUROPE

A petition has been launched calling for the “onerous debt” on Greece
to be written off. The intention is to collect a million signatures.
Under the Treaty of Lisbon, a petition with at least one million
signatures obtained from a number of Member States can be sent to the
Commission inviting it to change the law accordingly.

Petition: http://www.1millionsignatures.eu/?a=en

—————

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Tuesday 28th February, 7pm-10pm
Occupy Nottingham community outreach and social evening, Sneinton
Hermitage Community Centre, Sneinton Boulevard, NG2 4GN
http://occupy-nottingham.org.uk

Wednesday 29th February
PCS protest against closures of DVLA offices. Nottingham Business Park, Strelley
https://imc.li/zxphu

Wednesday 29th February, 12.30pm-1.30pm
Nottingham City Unison protest outside Loxley House in defence of
essential car user allowances
http://www.nottinghamcityunison.org.uk/

Saturday 3rd March, 12pm
Protest against workfare. Meet outside Wilkinsons, Parliament Street.
http://s.coop/nottsworkfare

Monday 5th March, 12.30pm-1.30pm
Nottingham City Council meets to set its budget. A protest is being
organised by Notts City Unison and Notts SOS.
http://www.nottinghamcityunison.org.uk/

Wednesday 7th March, 1pm-7.30pm
Save our NHS mass day of action, Houses of Parliament, London.
http://s.coop/unitenhs

Wednesday 14th March
National student walkout over “reforms” to higher education
http://gu.com/p/35dqz

Saturday 17th March, 2pm
Nottingham Indymedia are organising an online security skillshare at
the Sumac Centre.This will include an introductory session on using
Indymedia to post your own news about campaigns
http://nottingham.indymedia.org/events/2413

Wednesday 28th March
Possible national strike action over pensions by PCS and NUT (and
maybe other unions)

Saturday 12th April, 2pm
Legal observer training organised by Nottingham Defence Campaign and
run by Green and Black Cross. Held at the Sumac Centre, Forest Fields
https://imc.li/2sgsx


Nottinghamshire Save Our Services (Notts SOS)

Website: https://nottssos.org.uk
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nottssos
OStatus: https://indy.im/nottssos
Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/nottssosfb
Nottingham Indymedia:
http://nottingham.indymedia.org/groups/notts-save-our-services

Know the Cuts – Notts SOS campaign against City Council cuts in 2012-13

Notts Save Our Services (Notts SOS) is campaigning against council cuts in both the City and County.

Download our flyer against City Council cuts: Know the Cuts 2012

£20 MILLION CUTS IN NOTTINGHAM! (All figures taken from Council Budget Proposal for 2012-13)

Many city residents will be unaware of yet another year of further proposed cuts to our vital public services, increased costs to pay for them, and axing of local jobs. Below we highlight 10 headline proposals in the City Council budget for coming years. When they tell you “We’re all in this together”, …..you can see its not true.

* Council Tax up 3.49%
* Selling Portland Leisure Centre
* Closing two Older People’s Centres;
1) Marlstones Elderly Person’s Home, Bullwell
2) Willows Centre, Beechdale
* Closing the Museum of Nottingham Life, Brewhouse Yard
* Stopping food waste collections
* Closing nine recycling centres
* Reducing funding to young people support group Connexions
* Reducing redundancy pay for council staff to legal minimum with proposals for 195 Council job cuts
* £24 MILLION MORE CUTS BY SPRING 2015!

The council intends to set this budget on March 5th – join our campaign against these proposals

Notts County Council budget protest organised by Unison – Thursday 23rd February 2012

On Thursday 23rd February, Nottinghamshire County Council will meet to set its budget for 2012-13.

Notts Unison will be holding a demonstration outside County Hall at 12.30pm in protest against cuts to jobs and services and creeping privatisation.

Staff, service users and concerned citizens are encouraged to join the protest to show the breadth of opposition to the proposed cuts.

Link to flyer for the event: http://nottingham.indymedia.org/events/2407

114 user groups face International Community Centre cut – letter from Notts SOS

See also: Campaign launched against ICC cuts

Here is a letter to user groups about the proposed cut in the City Council’s grant from £54,000 to nil for the International Community Centre on Mansfield Road, where we hold our fortnightly meetings. There are 114 user groups at the ICC and at the last Notts SOS meeting we agreed to do our best to contact them about what is intended and see if some will come to our next Notts SOS meeting on Monday 20th Feb and/or take other action. Here is a copy of the letter which is also a flyer that is being put in every room over the next fortnight from today (agreed with the ICC).

To all groups using the International Community Centre (ICC)

Dear ICC user group

Proposed ending of Nottingham City Council grant to the ICC

Are you aware the City Council is proposing in its budget for the coming year to cut ALL of its £54,000 grant to the ICC?

The ICC is at present funded by this grant, financial support from the YMCA to repair and maintain the building, and income from groups like you that use the building. If this grant is cut, prices for use will increase a lot, and make it difficult for some groups to continue to meet here. It will also divert resources from community groups to sustain their community activities to instead being spent on room hire.

There is also the likelihood of further spiralling increases if some groups can no longer afford to meet here and the shortfall having to be met by the remaining smaller number of groups.

This grant was originally set up under a programme to improve the work of the voluntary sector. It has been successful in that there are now 114 different groups that use the ICC.

We urge your group to add its voice of protest to this proposal and request the council reconsider and fully reinstate this cut.

Please join our campaign to retain the grant to the ICC. How you can do this:

• Come to our next Notts. Save Our Services meeting at the ICC at 7.30pm on Monday 20th February. Other details about how you can contact us are listed over the page.

• Lobby Councillor Dave Liversidge’s and go and visit him at his fortnightly surgery. He is Portfolio Holder for Housing Strategy and Community Sector, and his surgeries provide an opportunity for voluntary sector and community sector organisations to raise awareness of their work and discuss issues. The surgeries are held at Loxley House, on Station St, on alternate Friday mornings from 9.30am to 12.15pm. The next date is 10 Feb. To book an appointment you need to contact Phil Hearn at NCC 0115 8762183 or email phil.hearn@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

• Email your comments/views to: Voluntary.sector@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

• Write to : Tricia Gilby, Service Manager Voluntary Sector Sustainability, Communities Courtyard, Wollaton Road, Nottingham, NG8 2AD

The Council meets on Monday 5th March to set its budget – so time is short to change the minds of Councillors….

Nottinghamshire Save Our Services (Notts. SOS) was set up in the autumn of 2010 to campaign and oppose all cuts to services in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. We have been fighting council cuts on many levels since then, including organising a 1,200 strong march to the city centre in November 2010.

We can be contacted at:

Website: https://nottssos.org.uk
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nottssos
Indymedia Instrant Messaging: https://indy.im/nottssos
Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/nottssosfbNottingham Indymedia:
http://nottingham.indymedia.org/groups/notts-save-our-services
or phone 07940 952825

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