THE public on Merseyside will need to make an appointment to speak to a police officer in future.
The force is to close front desks at police stations all over Merseyside to try and save more than £61million over the next four years.
The massive cost-cutting exercise has been named the ‘Excellent Policing Programme’ by senior officers, without any apparent hint of irony.
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by Brendan Barber, General Secretary of the TUC
GEORGE Osborne’s Plan A isn’t working. We can’t go on like this. We need an alternative. And we need it now.
Let me set out the TUC’s vision for an alternative, a five-point plan to help get our economy on track and help get Britain back to work.
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UNION members are being urged to make a din on November 30 with ‘One Voice at One’ to protest at the Government’s planned pension changes.
The North West TUC is asking protesters to make as much noise as possible at exactly 1 o’clock on November 30th, to draw attention to the campaign for pensions justice.
They want whistles to be blown, car horns to be honked, bells to be chimed and crowds to clap, chant, cheer or shout.
Organisers are hoping that there will also be some unusual noises made – including songs, music and poetry readings – and will be highlighting some of the most unusual.
Already pension protests are planned at TWELVE places in the North West as trade union members take action as part of the TUC’s Day of Action on pensions.
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PENSION protests will take place in at least eight places in the North West on the TUC’s Day of Action on November 30th.
The planned day of action will be an unprecedented coming together of the entire workforce in the public sector and the communities they serve in a united demand for pensions justice.
Protests will include major marches and rallies, as well as public meetings, pickets and petitions demanding that the Coalition abandon plans to make public service workers pay more and work longer for less.
So far Bolton, Chester, Liverpool, Manchester, Oldham, Preston, Warrington and Wirral are all official venues for protest events on November 30th.
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FORTY members of the House of Lords have interests in private medical companies or associated businesses, according to new research.
Lords and Baronesses include:
Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone: The former Conservative Health Secretary Virginia Bottomley is a Director of BUPA, the health insurance, private hospital and care group.
Lord Naseby: Chairman of and a share-holder in Invesco Perpetual Recovery Trust. One fifth of their investments are in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
Lord Wakeham: Advisor to L.E.K. Consulting, which specialises in helping private healthcare companies identify “growth and new business development” and “opportunities with the government”.
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ALMOST 20,000 jobs have been lost by local councils in the North West in the last year, according to a survey by the GMB union.
The figures do not include teaching staff or job losses from other public service organisations in the North West, which take the total figure well over 30,000.
Highest jobs losses in the region have been at Town Halls in Manchester, Lancashire, Liverpool and Rochdale.
Manchester has the second highest number of jobs lost in England with 2,549 being axed – a cut of 14.3 per cent of the workforce.
Lancashire has lost 2,079 (6.8 per cent); Liverpool has lost 1,645 (8.1 per cent); and Rochdale 1,523 (19.0 per cent).
Three other local authorities in the North West have lost more than 1,000 jobs: Wigan (1,284); Tameside (1,163) and Oldham (1,053).
North West TUC Regional Secretary Alan Manning said:”Essential front line council staff, such as refuse collectors, street cleaners, care workers and social workers are bearing the brunt of the Coalition’s austerity drive.
“They are being made to pay the price for the bankers recession and the Government’s obsession with slashing the deficit, which is now choking off any hopes of economic growth.
“These are lost jobs which are also gone forever – denying our young people a decent chance in life.”
Read more at: 101,094 Jobs Lost In English Councils
LECTURERS and other academic staff in Manchester and Liverpool are set to launch a “sustained campaign” of industrial action next week in a long-running row over pensions.
The action, including working to contracted hours, refusing to cover for colleagues and not attending meetings, could escalate into strikes if the row is not resolved.
The University and College Union (UCU) warned that a million students could be hit nationwide if the industrial action involving 67 universities is stepped up in the bitter dispute over the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), one of the largest private schemes in the UK.
Around 40,000 UCU members are affected by the dispute, with the union saying changes introduced at the start of the month will see them paying more to work longer, with less protection, if they lose their job.
The row is separate from the pensions dispute affecting millions of public sector workers, including 60,000 UCU members, which will lead to a day of action on November 30.
UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: “We are keen to resolve this dispute as quickly as possible with minimal disruption. However, you cannot negotiate with an empty chair.
“The university employers have tried every tactic in the book from slick PR and misleading taxpayer-funded adverts to direct intimidation and legal threats against union negotiators.
“If they had focused just a fraction of the time they have spent trying to force these unpopular changes through on negotiating properly, we would not be in this position. We want to negotiate and hope those universities keen to avoid unnecessary confrontation and disruption will start to apply pressure on those refusing to talk.”
THIRTY five thousand people marched peacefully through Manchester today in support of the alternative to the Coalition Government’s cuts in public spending.
Health workers, teachers, council staff, firemen and other workers joined the TUC’s Manchester for the Alternative march through the city centre where this year’s Conservative party conference is meeting.
Placard waving demonstrators chanted slogans, sang, danced and blew whistles through the streets of the city centre behind a banner at the head of the march which read: “cuts are not the cure”.
North West TUC Regional Secretary Alan Manning said he was “delighted” by the protest turnout.
He said: “People have come out in their tens of thousands to tell the Conservatives to think again about their policies which are hurting, but are not working.
“With the economy flatlining, we need policies which will get people back to work and paying taxes rather than languishing on the dole drawing benefits.
“We need policies for growth which will help the private sector compete in the global economy and for the public sector, which will provide the services that people need.
“Support is growing across Europe for a Robin Hood tax on transactions made by the financial institutions, who got us into this mess in the first place.
“But we also need a crackdown on tax evasion and tax avoidance which costs our country billions every year.”
Amongst the demonstrators were mums from Manchester who were protesting at the scrapping of Sure Start services for their children.
They were joined by workers from Remploy who are fighting to save their jobs and from British Aerospace where 3,000 skilled workers face the dole because of defence cuts.
At a rally at the end of the march, the demonstrators heard a series of speakers call for policies for growth to get the economy moving again.
Organisers had feared that irresponsible reporting by some newspapers might deter members of the public from joining the march and rally.
But in the event, the protest brought Manchester city centre to a peaceful halt as tens of thousand of people joined the good natured-demonstration.
Anti-cuts march in Manchester: More than 35,000 attend
35,000 protesters march on Conservative Party conference
Protesters mass in Manchester as Conservative conference begins
FINAL details of the TUC’s Manchester for the Alternative march and rally at the Conservative Party Conference on Sunday October 2nd have been released.
Marchers will assemble from 12 noon along the length of Liverpool Road, at its junction with Deansgate.
A photo call with some of the main speakers will be held at the head of the march at the top of Liverpool Road at 12.45.
The march will then set off at approximately 1pm and wind its way through Manchester city centre, including outside the Conservative Party Conference at Manchester Central, before arriving at the rally point at Number One First Street at approximately 2pm.
This is a link to the full route
Full list of speakers: Tony Lloyd MP for Manchester Central; Danielle Leadbetter Sure Start Campaign; Lee Jasper BARAC; Paul Kenny GMB and TUC President; Len McCluskey, Unite; Christine Blower, NUT; Mark Serwotka, PCS;Chris Keates, NASUWT; Bob Crow, RMT; Mary Bousted, ATL; Rena Wood Unison; Matt Wrack FBU; Brian Davies Remploy Shop Steward; Terry Hoad UCU President; Paul Nowak Head of Organisation TUC; Jamil Keating Manchester College Student.
The protest is due to end at approximately 4.30pm.
North West TUC Regional Secretary Alan Manning said: “We have been working very closely with the police, local authority and other emergency services to ensure that the march and rally on Sunday will be peaceful, well managed and stewarded, but also good humoured, colourful and noisy.
“Thousands of people are coming to Manchester by coach and train from all over the country to show their support for the alternative to the Conservative’s damaging cuts: policies for jobs and growth, a Robin Hood tax on financial transactions and a crackdown on tax loopholes and evasion.
“We hope that the public of Manchester and the North West will also join us to help persuade David Cameron’s Government to change course and abandon policies which are hurting, but are not working and are only causing untold damage to people’s lives.”
For official information about the TUC’s march and rally, please contact Matt Finnegan: tel: 07807 033 438 or email mfinnegan@tuc.org.uk
MANCHESTER is to close all council-run Sure Start services and nurseries and end day care to slash another £21million from public spending.
Nearly all of its 460 early years staff will lose their jobs as a result of the planned cuts.
Day-care centres will be kept open as meeting or activity spaces for groups or rented out to other organisations.
For the first-time ever the city council will cease to provide any day care for young children – from new born babies to 5-year-olds. All Sure Start provision will end.
Council chiefs say the changes will be phased in over four years and will affect the 11 per cent of families who use local authority daycare facilities.
A 90-day consultation period will begin on October 3rd.
The council had hoped that new organisations – social enterprises, voluntary organisations, church groups and charities – would take over early years services as part of £170million worth of savings, forced by the Coalition cuts.
But its believed that few organisations had come forward, leaving the council with no other option but to scrap the service entirely.
Now 60 outreach posts will be created with every family of a newborn baby visited at home by an outreach worker who will stay in touch until the child is three. Parents will also get a monthly newsletter advising them on their child’s development.
From September 2012, the council’s legal requirement to provide 15 hours a week early education for three to four-year-olds will be delivered through the private, voluntary and independent sectors and schools.
Parents have formed a ‘Save Manchester Sure Start’ campaign against the cuts.
They say: “There are many reasons why they shouldn’t dismantle the Sure Start service and their plans to solely focus on the most vulnerable families will leave those families with universal needs at a far greater risk of falling into the vulnerable and needy groups.”
One parent of a 3-year-old said: “ This will be a big blow for working parents who rely on the daycare services.”
In his Leaders Blog, Council leader Sir Richard Leese described the planned cuts as a “difficult decision.”
“This will involve very radical changes…The Council, which incidentally only provides 11% of the daycare in the city will withdraw as a direct provider of day care but will continue to ensure all 3 and 4 year olds get the 15 hours a week free daycare they are entitled to alongside a new universal offer focusing on 0-3 year olds with the most service going to greatest need.
“Targeted ” assertive outreach ” should take the proportion of children reached from under 30% to nearer a 100% , and children centres will be maintained as community hubs. Sure Start will do what it was always intended to, give those children who need it most, the support to get a good start in live, something that’s good for them, their families, and the city as a whole.”
The council’s report can be read at: /egovdownloads/UrgentEarlyYears.pdf
NUMBER One, First Street will be the venue for the Manchester for the Alternative protest rally on Sunday, October 2nd.
The march will assemble at 12 noon in Liverpool Road (from Deansgate down towards Water Street) and wind its way past the Conservative Party Conference at Manchester Central, before the rally at Number One First Street, which is located at the junction of Whitworth Street West and Albion Street in Manchester city centre.
Further speakers for the rally are due to be announced soon.
DISABLED people, their families and friends will be taking to the streets of Manchester to protest against Government cuts to disability benefits and services.
More protests are planned in cities across the UK, including Edinburgh, Cardiff, Leeds, Nottingham, Brighton, Newcastle and Bristol with more locations expected to follow.
The Hardest Hit campaign, organised jointly by the Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC) and the UK Disabled People’s Council, brings together individuals and organisations to send a clear message to the Government: stop these cuts.
The Manchester demonstration will take place on:
Saturday 22 October 2011
2-3pm with a rally in Albert Square, outside Manchester Town Hall (http://www.manchester.gov.uk/location)
Speakers will include people who will be affected by the proposals in the Welfare Reform Bill and a petition will be presented to local elected representatives expressing opposition to the Bill.
Manchester is one of many cities across the North West that have been severely affected by budget cuts.
Across the region people are seeing deep cuts in services such as social care and transport which they rely upon to remain independent.
Please join us at this event to voice your concerns over these unfair proposals. More details will be posted here soon.
To register your interest email: northwest@hardesthit.org.ukPlease and circulate these details as widely as possible and encourage people to support this rally.
If you can volunteer to help steward the event please contact Alan Manning, TUC Regional Secretary, 0151 236 5432 or amanning@tuc.org.uk
THE official route has now been announced for the ‘Manchester for the Alternative’ march outside the Conservative Party conference in the city on October 2nd.
This is the route:
From the assembly point in Liverpool Road (from Deansgate down towards Water Street), the march will go left along Deansgate, right into John Dalton Street, ahead along Princess Street, right down Portland Street, right into Oxford Street.
It will then turn left into Hall Street, right on to Bale Street and then then left into Lower Mosley Street (this will avoid the security barriers which will be in place at the junction of Lower Mosley Street and Oxford Street).
The march will then pass along Lower Mosley Street opposite the entrance and down the whole length of Manchester Central, which is the venue for this year’s Conservative conference.
The precise rally point will be a short distance away – the details of which will be finalised with the next few days.
by Alan Manning, Regional Secretary, North West TUC
CANDLES will be lit next week as the government’s controversial Health and Social Care Bill receives its third reading in the House of Commons.
A nationwide vigil for the NHS is being organised on September 6th and 7th after the head of Britain’s doctors described the government’s Bill – already the largest and most complex in NHS history – as “high risk”, “rushed-through” and “ill-thought-out”.
Dr Hamish Meldrum says there is “very little accountability” in the Coalition’s proposals. The comprehensive health care service that we know and love is to be broken up so that ‘any willing provider’ of services can have a piece of the action. That means the steady privatisation of services and the use of more expensive management consultants.
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LEADERS of a string of trade unions are to speak at the TUC’s ‘Manchester for the Alternative’ march and rally outside this year’s Tory Party conference.
Seven union General Secretaries have so far been confirmed for the October 2nd demonstration in Manchester city centre.
They are: Paul Kenny, of the GMB; Len McCluskey, of UNITE; Christine Blower, of the NUT; Mark Sewotka, of PCS; Chris Keates, of the NASUWT; Bob Crow, of RMT; Mary Bousted, of ATL, as well as Manchester’s Rena Wood, from UNISON.
The ‘Manchester for the Alternative’ protest, which will assemble at 12 noon in Liverpool Road, off Deansgate, will march past the Conservative Party conference in Manchester Central.
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DETAILS of the TUC’s national protest march outside the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester have been announced today.
The march, which is expected to attract thousands of demonstrators from all over the country, will assemble at 12 noon in Liverpool Road, Manchester city centre (off Deansgate) on Sunday, October 2nd.
It will then proceed through the city centre before a rally at which leading national speakers will address the crowd.
The march is being planned to co-incide with the first day of the Conservative Party’s Annual Conference which will be held in Manchester this year.
NW TUC Regional Secretary Alan Manning said: “We are in regular consultation with Greater Manchester Police about the arrangements for the demonstration and further updates will be made as soon as possible.
“We are hoping for a substantial turnout to demonstrate our opposition to the Government’s economic and social policies which are having such a devastating effect on people’s lives.”
NEW research today shows how charities face £3billion cuts over the next five years – exposing the hypocrisy of David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ .
The research is published by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) and follows a separate report which shows over 300 charities across the North West face budget cuts.
The budget cuts have been revealed as local authorities reduce their funding – or in some cases completely withdraw it – according to research published by the anti-cuts campaign website False Economy.
The research, based on Freedom of Information responses from local councils across the region, shows that one year on from the launch of the Big Society, many charities and voluntary groups are facing deep funding cuts.
All charities or voluntary groups receiving a funding cut of at least five per cent are listed in the research, although most of the cuts are far deeper than this and many groups have had their funding cancelled completely.
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THE economy in the North West is showing little sign of recovery as public services lose almost 30,000 jobs, TUC Regional Secretary Alan Manning said today.
He was echoing fears about the economy ’flatlining’ after official figures put growth at just 0.2 per cent in the second quarter of 2011.
Mr Manning said: “The Coalition Government’s deficit measures are hurting, with close to 30,000 jobs lost from the public sector in our region.
“But they certainly are not working with no sign of the private sector filling the employment gap and the economy flatlining.
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THE TUC have called a national march and rally at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester in October.
The demonstration will be backed by the TUC nationally which is also backing a similar protest at the Lib Dem conference in Birmingham.
Details of the Manchester demonstration are now being drawn up and should be finalised within the next few weeks.
Work has already begun to design fliers, posters and email notices with speakers also due to be announced shortly.
Regular updates will be posted here at Proud to serve the public
North West TUC Regional Secretary Alan Manning today issued a call to the trade union movement to mobilise for the march and demonstration which will assemble in central Manchester from 12 noon on October 2nd.
'Proud to serve the public’ is a North West TUC campaign to protect and promote public services in our Region. We believe public services are a vital part of the North West economy. They create jobs, stimulate growth and... Read more
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