welfare – Notts Save Our Services

Criticism of Nottingham City Council over brand exercise for leisure centres while access is being cut

The local NCC Lols blog has revealed that while Nottingham City Council is making cuts to the sports and leisure concessions scheme that will make it harder for people to afford to go, they have decided to spend over £150k over 3 years on ‘branding’ for the leisure centres which is presumably to make them more attractive to users. NCC lols say:

NCC has been trading off this ‘we’re on your side’ nonsense for a while yet they are making sports and leisure facilities
less accessible to those on low incomes (including removing concessions from those on Income Support) while throwing a load of
money on a vanity project.

This is exactly the kind of thing anti-cuts campaigners need to be aware of – there clearly ARE alternatives to cuts and branding seems especially superfluous if the cuts are going to mean we can’t afford to go anyway.

Christmas carols subverted into anti-cuts protests [with ’12 Days of Cripmas’ and ‘tax Vodafone’ videos]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKdKzalMhXc]The 12 Days Of Cripmas is a topical take of a classic carol listing the benefits and services currently being removed from disabled people in Britain. The lyrics were written by a user of the Ouch messageboards, sent to Where’s The Benefit and the track produced and directed by BendyGirl of The Broken Of Britain. We’re all incredibly proud of Imana our 11 yr old singing star who is a child carer for her mum who has Multiple Sclerosis.

A few of reports from the recent 15th December national day of protest about cuts affecting welfare and disabled people are online:
London: Disabled People Against Cuts, “Nativity Play”, Trafalgar Square: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/6720
Glasgow: Citizens United: http://www.indymediascotland.org/node/22619
Oxford: Uninvisible Rally: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/12/470796.html

See also, about a specific cut in Notts County (courtesy of Parish of Nottingham blog, where Vogon commander would appear to be County leader Kay Cutts): http://parishofnottinghamshire.blogspot.com/2010/11/disabled-to-suffer-under-vogon.html
Creative carols were also sung on the 18th Dec anti-tax avoidance demonstrations in Nottingham.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOc2FBY7ZU0&feature=player_embedded]

[Video 1] [Video 2] [Video 3]

Look at pictures: in Notts SOS facebook gallery

See also – a comment on Notts Trades Council website about Christmas pop: http://www.nottstuc.org/2010/12/on-seasonal-note.html

Get involved with Notts SOS – appeal from a Nottingham City NHS worker

A Nottingham NHS worker speaks frankly about his, his workmates’, and his family and friends’ situations under the continuing threat of cuts that will no doubt be familiar to many others, and urges everyone to get involved with Notts SOS.

I work in one of the support services within the Nottingham NHS Citihealth organisation. We provide community health services to the Nottingham area. We have heard the current government promise to ring fence frontline health spending, however the reality on the ground is somewhat different. Continue reading “Get involved with Notts SOS – appeal from a Nottingham City NHS worker”

What cuts are we opposing?

Things will become a lot clearer when the Con-Dem coalition’s spending review is announced next month. In the meantime, here is a list of mainly local cuts mooted before the General Election (as of Mayday 2010), some already being made. Since May there have been further announcements including the abolishing of some NHS Trusts, Authorities and Organisations over the coming years, plus a additional cut of £4 billion in the welfare budget. Locally we can add Carlton Road to the list of library closures which will probably get ‘merged’ with St Anns. Continue reading “What cuts are we opposing?”