Published: 24 February 2009
Cut Flowers, not Youth Services
Floral displays in Coventry appear to be more important than children and youth services, Unite, the largest union in the country, has said.
As the Conservative-controlled city council prepares to meet on Tuesday, 24 February to decide on whether to implement £660,000 of cuts to young people’s services, Unite has highlighted the council’s decision to restore £92,000 to the city’s floral displays’ budget.
“We should be nurturing the bloom of youth, not rose blooms”, said Doug Nicholls, Unite National Secretary, Community and Youth Workers Industrial Sector. “The council seems to have a distorted view of what is really important”.
If the council votes to prune children & youth services, it will mean the closure of the remaining 14 after-school clubs and 23 summer play schemes, possibly affecting 6,000 primary school children. Staff job cuts are also on the cards.
Unite is calling on the public to lobby councillors as they enter the Council House at noon on Tuesday, 24 February for what is expected to be a knife-edge decision.
Doug Nicholls continued:
“It is time that the people of Coventry spoke with a united and democratic voice to demonstrate that these services, designed to inspire and care for young people and children in their local communities, can’t be lightly discarded”.
The planned cuts to the Children’s and Family Education Services, totalling £300,000 for the financial year 2009/10, are coupled with the £360,000 being axed from the Youth Service over a two-year period, (2007/09).
The Youth Service gives support & advice on:
- sexual health
- drug & alcohol misuse
- community cohesion
- employment training
Unite is calling on the council’s new Chief Executive, Martin Reeve, who takes up his post on 1 April 2009, to maintain front line services for children and young people, and enter into ‘a meaningful dialogue’ with the trade unions.
On 14 February about 400 people joined a Unite demonstration to express their opposition to the cuts.
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