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North East REGION - The impact of Austerity/Cuts and other Central Government Policies (All Sub-Forum Areas)

65K views 296 replies 33 participants last post by  Ken O'Heed 
#1 ·
Saw this comment online the other day:

"The Government have pulled many millions from the Humber Sub Region in the last few weeks (£220 MILLION from the A63 Catle Street supported by Hull and the East Riding, £150 MILLION from Orchard Park, £90 MILLION from the Gateway scheme from Hull and the East Riding and 40% from the Building Schools for the Future amounting to £95 MILLION giving a total £555 MILLION cuts since this government put itself in to power".

So, Hull has seen £555 million of cuts already, not to mention Hull Forward as well.
I wonder if anyone from one of the other forums can tell us if their area has been affected this much too? it'd be interesting to know.
 
#105 ·
North East Arts Venues prepare for 100% City Council cuts
by David Whetstone, The Journal, November 16th 2012


The Theatre Royal, Two children at the National Centre for Childrens Books, and Erica Whyman from Northern Stage

MAJOR ARTS VENUES in Newcastle, including the Theatre Royal, Northern Stage, Tyneside Cinema and The National Centre for Childrens Books at Seven Stories, have been warned to brace themselves for a 100% cut in funding from the city council. This would mean the Theatre Royal, the council’s principal beneficiary, losing more than £500,000 annually. Acclaimed producing theatres such as Northern Stage and Live Theatre would be hit along with Seven Stories, days after it was granted national status, and Dance City.

The revelation follows news that libraries, swimming pools and playschemes may close as the authority finds £90m of Government-ordered cuts. Tony Durcan, Newcastle City Council’s director of culture, libraries and lifelong learning, said he had briefed the bosses of 10 cultural organisations which between them receive about £1.5m from the authority.

“We are looking at up to 100% reductions in revenue support to parts of the cultural sector,” he said. “These are the big players such as three theatres, Seven Stories, Dance City, the Tyneside Cinema. There are also some smaller organisations such as Globe Gallery and Isis Arts. Rather like I said in the case of the libraries, we’ve got to make these terrific reductions across the whole council over three years, losing a third of our budget.”

He explained there was no statutory obligation to subsidise the arts but added: “That isn’t to say we don’t think they’re important. We could lose a lot from this, for only a little actual saving, but we have to make every saving we can so that we can protect the vulnerable and deliver our statutory requirements.”


Read More - http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-...re-for-100-cuts-61634-32243147/#ixzz2COMMDM6x
 
#106 ·
Weekly bin collections in Newcastle set to be axed
by Adrian Pearson, Evening Chronicle, November 16th 2012


Newcastle City Council says the moves are needed as it must reduce its spending by £90m

WEEKLY BIN COLLECTIONS in Newcastle are to be axed as the City Council continues its bid to save £90m. Local authority leaders have confirmed they are to move from weekly to fortnightly household waste collections. A budget set to be unveiled next week will pave the way for radical spending reductions.

Newcastle has set out its plans in advance of the Chancellor’s upcoming Autumn Statement, as well as waste collection services, the council also has bad news for street cleaning teams, park rangers and grass cutting and landscaping staff. Almost all of the city’s floral displays will be affected, with the council unlikely to be able to pay for flowers and shrubs on an annual basis. So far the council has not been able to say how many jobs are at risk, but with £11m to be taken out of the neighbourhood services budget there is little hope of avoiding some redundancies.

Nigel Hails, director of neighbourhood services, said "Fortnightly bin collections would bring the city into line with Gateshead, Northumberland and Durham. This is now common practice across 200 authorities in the country. Experience from these councils shows that this helps to improve recycling rates and customer satisfaction surveys tell us local people do not feel disadvantaged and adapt quickly.”


Read More - http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/nort...-set-to-be-axed-72703-32246178/#ixzz2COReEwVG
 
#107 ·
from this year's budget:
"The council has just received proposals from government to
support weekly collection. These will be assessed and a bid will be submitted if the council can satisfy the terms of the funding for support towards the £1m cost of maintaining this. If funding is secured then the council would like to involve local residents in further discussion on how to maintain and improve this service during the coming months. "

emphasis mine. what exactly are these terms?


and also, this year they're making £30m in cuts. Of that, £21.7m is internal stuff. You have to ask why they didn't do this a long time ago. They've already cut internal spending by around £30m in the past two years.
 
#108 ·
Newcastle City Council hope for
volunteers to look after parks

by Adrian Pearson, Evening Chronicle, November 17th 2012


VOLUNTEERS will be asked to take over parks throughout the City, as part of £90m of council cuts. Council leaders in Newcastle are hoping an army of volunteers and community groups can start looking out for the likes of Jesmond Dene over the next three years. Multi-million pound spending cuts set to be announced next week will see £11m taken from the money behind neighbourhood services, potentially paving the way for hundreds of council redundancies.

With park wardens among those under threat, Newcastle City Council bosses are turning to charities and community groups to ensure parks are maintained. It is just one in a series of cuts set to transform council services as city leaders face up to Government grant reductions and rising costs. Nigel Hails, the city’s director of neighbourhood services, said: “The level of maintenance of our public parks, grass cutting and landscaping activities will be reduced in frequency and some labour-intensive areas replaced. Street cleaning will be significantly reduced and the council will no longer be able to provide its floral programme every year.

“Our parks are our treasures. We have invested a lot in recent years and won several awards. But what matters most is that they are open, safe and used well. We will reduce maintenance in some; but still work with community groups and we will keep a number of high quality parks across the city. Volunteers already play a big role in Newcastle, but over the next three years the number of staff paid to keep parks and open spaces in top condition is likely to be reduced."


Read More - http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/nort...ook-after-parks-72703-32252466/#ixzz2CUFLCN5w
 
#110 ·
So that's parks, pools and library's the council are looking at the community to run. Of course once they do that they will never go back to employing people to do it!

What's next? I think the community would probably do a better job running the council itself. :)
 
#111 ·
Newcastle Council cuts 1,300 jobs to save £90m

This from BBC news 20/11/12


Newcastle's "super library" opened in June 2009


More than 1,300 jobs are to be axed by a North East council struggling to trim £90m from its budget.

Newcastle City Council - which employs 10,500 staff - will also shut 10 libraries, although it said its new £24m city centre library was safe.

A spokesman blamed rising costs and a greater demand for services for the cuts.

Leader of the Labour-run council, Nick Forbes, said it was "one of the darkest days for public service in Newcastle".

Full story on http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-20415505

KEN
 
#112 ·
Newcastle Museums hit hard by slash in budgets
by Dan Warburton, The Journal, November 21st 2012


Exhibit at the Great North Museum

THE SLASHING of City Council budgets will impact on services provided by museums and galleries across the City, it was announced last night. Currently the Great North Museum, for example, is operated on a free basis, but yesterday museum bosses said they will look at a range of their services. Iain Watson, director of Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, said: “The Great North Museum and the Hatton Gallery receive around 12% of their funding from Newcastle City Council and this will be removed, while Discovery Museum, Tyne & Wear Archives and the Laing Art Gallery will have their funding from Newcastle City Council cut by 50% over the next three years.

“Obviously this will have an impact on the services we can deliver to people in the region – our learning programmes for schools and families, the exhibitions we stage and the work we do with community groups in the North East will all be looked at as we work to deal with reductions in funding. I understand that this is not a decision which Newcastle City Council wished to make but has had forced on it by the local government funding position."

“I sincerely believe in the positive impact that museums and galleries – and wider arts and culture – have on the local and regional economy and the lives of people who live in the North East. More than one million people enjoy and learn from museums and galleries in Newcastle every year.”


Read More - http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-...lash-in-budgets-61634-32273277/#ixzz2CqcSyWhF
 
#113 ·
I wonder if the cuts will affect many of the senior management non jobs in Newcastle CC. It would make more sense to dramatically cut the amount of managers than close libraries, but we know this won't happen. Also has Newcastle put off the cuts for too long and now had to make these drastic cuts now?
 
#114 ·
Citizens Advice Bureaus forced to turn away those in need
by Adrian Pearson, Evening Chronicle, November 29th 2012


A CRISIS-HIT support service is turning away the desperate as the money runs out. Across Tyneside, Citizens Advice Bureaus are telling hard hit families they will have to fend for themselves as government cuts continue. In Newcastle and Gateshead alone, more than half a million pounds will be taken from the help centres, meaning an end to new benefits cases.

Already the centres face a six week backlog and are either turning down new cases or having a one-off lesson with customers in the unlikely hope they can go on to successfully defend themselves in complex cases. With specialists advisers being made redundant and a ban on new cases, the Newcastle branch has warned of a Tyneside-wide crisis for those falling on hard times.

Despite this, the Government has insisted there is no problem, saying the money does not run out until April.


Read More - http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/nort...y-those-in-need-72703-32330361/#ixzz2DcSC4Yev
 
#115 ·
Families in Newcastle protest against council cuts
Evening Chronicle, November 29th 2012


PLANS to close two respite centres for the disabled will plunge Newcastle families into crisis, protestors demonstrating against city council cuts claim. More than 50 parents whose children attend respite centres Cheviot View, at Longbenton, and Castledene, at Gosforth, took part in a mass protest outside Newcastle’s Civic Centre as council leaders debated the £90m budget cuts that they propose to implement.

Campaign leader Nicola Vose branded council plans “disgraceful” as they would leave her struggling to cope with the care of her two disabled children. Nicola, 40, from Kenton Bar, said: “The stress levels carers face without support is detrimental to their health, and we have all read about the terrible cases of how, when carers can’t cope, they have taken their own lives and their children’s too."

“I know only a small proportion of Newcastle’s population use the centres, and libraries and swimming pools are being hit too in, but these disgraceful cuts to respite truly are a matter of life or death.”


Read More - http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/nort...st-council-cuts-72703-32330350/#ixzz2DcSzELSX
 
#116 ·
In Copeland the Beacon Centre and the Civic Hall are to close by 2014. Unfortunately the council wasted £ 1.5 million on a sports stadium that was cancelled at the last minute and would probably never be full, and now due to this, two important tourist attractions are to close in Whitehaven.
 
#117 ·
Culture cuts report reveals devastation for Newcastle
by Ruth Lognonne, The Journal, December 5th 2012


Live Theatre CEO Jim Beirne

DEVASTATING cuts to Newcastle’s artistic sector will harm the economy, as well as wrecking the city’s cultural life, a new report claims. Figures released in an attempt to force a Newcastle Council climbdown on 100% cuts to a number of cultural bodies show £4.06 was put back into the region’s economy for every pound of subsidy received during 2011/12.

The findings made by Culture Matters – 10 of the North East’s top cultural venues – show £77.6m was pumped into the region’s economy across the cultural organisations during 2011/12. The venues supported more than 2,000 jobs, procured goods and services worth more than £19m from regional suppliers and generated around £8.6m in additional visitor spend.

Last night Jim Beirne, chief executive of Newcastle’s Live Theatre, told The Journal that Newcastle will likely lose some of its leading cultural venues if the proposed budget cuts are carried out. He said: “Now we have proper evidence that underlines the economic value of culture and arts in Newcastle. These are proposed cuts at the moment from the City Council and we’re simply making the argument from an economic point of view. To completely remove investment in culture will have devastating effects on the city’s economy in the long term.


Read More - http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-...n-for-newcastle-61634-32363876/#ixzz2EAa4Wrg5
 
#119 ·
Gateshead Libraries - some to be run by volunteers ??

This from GMBC Website:-

Date: 07/01/2013

Gateshead Council is looking for volunteers to run five of its libraries.

Gateshead Council has agreed to a proposal which would result in a core network of 12 libraries across Gateshead with the remaining 5 libraries, located at Sunderland Road, Low Fell, Winlaton, Lobley Hill and Ryton being run by volunteers.

These community-run libraries would continue to receive financial support from the Council to meet their running costs.

The Council is also looking for volunteers to assist with its Readers at Home service, which delivers books to housebound residents.

Full story on http://www.gateshead.gov.uk/Council...rticles/Library-Service-Seeks-Volunteers.aspx



Cameron's "Big Society" to happen ??

KEN
 
#122 ·
A fair cut? Not 100%

The following message puts its view across quite clearly:
Northern Stage said:

A Fair Cut?

Newcastle City Council is currently running a public consultation on proposals to make more than £100m of savings by 2016.​


This includes a proposal to remove 100% of funding from many of Newcastle's best known cultural venues and organisations. We know the City Council must make cuts and we fully expect to carry our fair share, but for every £1 of funding collectively received £4 is put back into the economy. We are therefore concerned that 100% cuts will seriously threaten the future of this city, famed worldwide for regeneration through investment in culture.


If you agree please send the City Council an email now to ask that they reconsider 100% and work with the cultural partners and other important stakeholders, like Arts Council England, to find a way for culture and Newcastle to flourish in the future. You have until February 1st to make your voice heard.


Your opinion matters. Please take part - you can make a difference.
http://www.northernstage.co.uk/news-and-views/news/not-100
 
#123 ·
Newcastle’s Library buildings to be sold off
by Kim Swan, Evening Chronicle, January 16th 2013


HISTORIC library buildings could be sold off or demolished under sweeping budget cuts. Newcastle City Council is proposing to close seven libraries and relocate a further two this summer before axing another three facilities in 2015. It says it wants community groups or businesses to take on the running of the services. But the buildings, some of major historical importance, could be sold or even demolished if volunteers do not come forward.

Tony Durcan OBE, director of culture, libraries and lifelong learning at Newcastle City Council, said: “Our first priority would be to make sure any empty library buildings are handed over to local people for either use as libraries or as community buildings. We will do whatever we can to avoid demolition.”


Read More - http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/nort...-to-be-sold-off-72703-32611273/#ixzz2I9fUtoTE
 
#124 ·
Further to . . .

Newcastle’s Library buildings to be sold off
by Kim Swan, Evening Chronicle, January 16th 2013

HISTORIC LIBRARY BUILDINGS could be sold off or demolished under sweeping budget cuts. Newcastle City Council is proposing to close seven libraries and relocate a further two this summer before axing another three facilities in 2015. It says it wants community groups or businesses to take on the running of the services. But the buildings, some of major historical importance, could be sold or even demolished if volunteers do not come forward.

Tony Durcan OBE, director of culture, libraries and lifelong learning at Newcastle City Council, said: “Our first priority would be to make sure any empty library buildings are handed over to local people for either use as libraries or as community buildings. We will do whatever we can to avoid demolition.”

Read More - http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/nort...-to-be-sold-off-72703-32611273/#ixzz2I9fUtoTE

. . . Here are some details of some of the Newcastle City Libraries, in question.













.
 
#125 ·
Newburn Library, Pharmacy and Surgery

It appears this scheme is now in jeopardy as Newcastle Council has pulled out of the Library part of the scheme. :eek:hno:

This is when NHS funding had been secured to take the scheme forward.

More news when I get it.
The latest news is that the scheme is not going to go ahead in its intended form.
(There was a Planning Application a few months ago)
The current Newburn Library will have some money spent on it to try and make it accessible - it has very steep stairs to the entrance.

The fate of a potentially reduced size Surgery and Pharmacy is unknown at the present time.

So because NCC have pulled out of the tripartite development we are back to square one.
A doctors surgery and library which are both not fit for purpose. :eek:hno:
 
#126 ·
Gateshead Council to make further £30 million cuts

This scanned copy of Newcastle Evening Chronicle article of 21/01/13

Talk of further £30 million cuts over next 2 years on top of £66 million cuts made to date, including;-

Loss of more jobs to the 1,125 lost in last 3 years - including possible compulsory redundancies

Possible grant cuts of £184,000 to the Sage and Baltic

Cutting back flooding repairs and street cleaning

Above inflation increases to car park charges, cemeteries and crematoria costs, pest control, bulky waste collections etc




On same image (hosted on Photobucket) talk of another £23 million Northumberland Council cuts in 2013/14

KEN
 
#127 ·
Times are hard, in Copeland, there are plans to lose the museum, the Civic Hall( used for concerts and election results) and cut branch libraries. Unfortunately the same council wasted £ 2 million trying to get a super stadium built for a rugby league club that struggles to get 1000 fans and then pulled the plug. I would rather they'd have spent the money on saving their cultural activities, which also attract tourists all year round.
 
#128 ·
North Tyneside Mayor talks of further £12 million cuts

This scanned copy of Newcastle Evening Chronicle article of 22/01/13

Talk of further £12 million cuts at North Tyneside Council over 2013/14 financial year on top of £32 million cuts made to date over last 3 years, with possible maximum 250 job losses



KEN
 
#129 ·
Gateshead Council proposes spending choices for next two years

Reference to post above, this is part of the text of the article concerning proposed cuts for 2013/14 and 2014/15

Full article on http://www.gateshead.gov.uk/Council%...two-years.aspx

Date: 20/01/2013

Cabinet members will be asked to agree to a consultation with local people on the council budget, at a meeting in Gateshead this week.

Residents will be asked to consider a range of spending proposals for the next financial year that will protect essential services and manage spending pressures.

Faced with unprecedented challenges from massive and rapid reductions in Government funding, the Council must now find savings for 2013 to 2015 to cover a funding gap of approximately £30m over and above savings that had already been identified. Gateshead Council will now have at least £233 less to spend, per person per year than it did in 2010.

Extensive consultations have already been undertaken on local priorities for 2012 to 2014 and in the last three years the Council has made significant savings of £66m. This has meant that 1,125 fewer people are now working for the Council and there have been significant changes to services.

As posted by JKKNE in post 884 of 23/01/13 on Gateshead Developments thread:-


"Gateshead Council have released their spending proposals for 2013/14. I've included the link below

http://online.gateshead.gov.uk/docus...+Proposals.doc

Some things which caught my eye reading through

Closure of Birtley Crematorium

Removal of patrols from Saltwell Park with duties transferred to Friends of Saltwell Park

Closure of Bill Quay Community Farm or handing over of the facility to outside organisation

No council sponsored Christmas Lights/Decorations/Trees

No more countryside wardens

Reduction in grants to Beamish, T&W Archives, BALTIC and Sage

All car parks to include charges and increase charges in all car parks.

End of support for Heritage Open Days

Withdrawal of school crossing patrols

No more blue plaques

Connexions to close (young employment service)

Removal of outside teaching and learning consultants to all education facilities

Ending the provision of bedding and flowers on council land and parks

Streetlights to go off between 12am and 5am in certain areas.

Old Town Hall sold to Sage Gateshead

Road and Pavement Maintenance to become reactive as opposed to proactive

Gateshead is aiming to save around £66m"

KEN
 
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