Depressing Calderdale Council budget meeting approves massive cuts budget – without knowing where cuts will fall

Posted on February 24, 2015 by jenny

LibDem Councillors last night voted with the Tory group to approve a 3 year Council budget that passes huge Coalition government cuts to local authority funding onto the people of Calderdale.

The new Council Budget is vague about massive cuts it commits to in 2017/18, which include £2.6m cuts to unspecified “discretionary services”, as well as £2.5m cuts to Adults Health and Social Care and Children’s and Young People’s Services, as a result of “new ways of working”.

“New ways of working” is about turfing staff out of Council employment and getting them to set up as a social enterprise, contracted to deliver Council services on less money.

Discretionary services are those which the Council doesn’t have a statutory duty to provide, but which the public relies on in our day to day lives – such as libraries, winter road gritting and children’s centres. Continue reading →

New #Calderdale Council Tax Hardship Fund

Aside

Calderdale Council has introduced a local hardship fund for people who receive Council
Tax reduction.

If you qualify for the fund (see info below) and need to claim assistance, you can phone the Council’s advisers on 01422 288003. Continue reading →

#Halifax and #Hebden Bridge take part in Europe-wide day of action to stop Big Bad Treaty

Posted on October 13, 2014 by jenny

On Saturday October 11th, scores of local people staffed information stalls in Halifax Town Centre and Hebden Bridge, to alert the public to the corporate power grab disguised as a transatlantic trade and investment treaty, that is currently being negotiated between the European Union and the USA. Continue reading →

11th October #Halifax protests against EU-US trade deal

Posted on October 5, 2014 by jenny

On Saturday 11th October from 12-1pm, protesters in Halifax will demonstrate against a major trade deal being negotiated between the United States and the EU, which threatens democracy, the environment, and public services including the NHS.

The Halifax protest, in the pedestrianised area outside Marks & Spencer, is one of many demonstrations planned across Europe on 11th October. Continue reading →

Calderdale Against Bedroom Tax underwhelmed by Council’s vote to review policy for awarding Discretionary Housing Payments

Posted on October 3, 2014 by jenny

A majority of Councillors at the full Calderdale Council meeting on 2nd October voted that Cabinet should re-examine the Council’s policy for awarding Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs), to make sure that the awards are made to as many residents as possible who need help with the Bedroom Tax

They also voted for a review the Council’s Housing Strategy to make sure that the supply of affordable housing meets the needs of residents, especially smaller households. Continue reading →

Calderdale People’s Assembly members march against austerity

Posted on June 23, 2014 by jenny

Deirdre O’Neill (Calderdale People’s Assembly) and Charlie Gates (Calderdale Green Party) report on the People’s Assembly march against austerity in London last Saturday

Members of Calderdale People’s Assembly were among the fifty thousand people who marched in London last weekend against the swingeing cuts imposed on the most vulnerable people in society by the coalition government, in a demonstration organised by the People’s Assembly Against Austerity.

Calderdale People’s Assembly are clear about the impact the ‘austerity’ agenda is having in our area, including the government’s Bedroom Tax, benefit cuts, reductions in standards of living, increase in food banks, no pay rises for workers, and a serious threat to the Halifax A&E. Continue reading →

Banksters profit from Calderdale Royal Hospital PFI equity sales

Posted on March 11, 2014 by jenny

Equity in the Calderdale Royal Hospital (CRH), which is notorious as one of the most costly and least accountable PFI schemes in the NHS, has changed hands 10 times.
According to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, PFI equity sales are,

“the unacceptable face of capitalism.”

The 10 CRH equity sales make it hard to know who actually owns the debt that Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust has still to pay off, or the extent of equity holders’ profits, or what tax the equity holders paid – if any.

But the European Services Strategy Unit has managed to identify the companies involved in the equity sales. Continue reading →

Upper Calder Valley Plain Speaker

"To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing."

Category Archives: damned lies & austerity