ANIT CUTS GROUP AND UNITE TRADE UNION SAYS NO TO YOUTH SERVICE CUTS IN WARWICKSHIRE!

From Rugby Against The Cuts - http://rugbyagainstthecuts.blogspot.com/

Rugby Advertiser 18th November 2010

Rugby Observer 18th November 2010

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ANGER AT PLANS TO DESTROY WARWICKSHIRE’S YOUTH SERVICE

Rugby Against the Cuts has expressed its anger at proposals by Warwickshire County Council to cut its budget for youth services by £4.6 million, and close the Youth Service completely. “This is the reality of the Con-Dem Governments spending cuts announced in the Comprehensive Spending Review,” the campaign’s spokesperson Pete McLarensaid today. “To cut the Youth Service, and the parallel Positive about Young People organisation, would effectively deny young people any real, voluntary access to crucial support, and lead to hundreds of redundancies. Youth clubs and related organisations provide vital services for the community, especially in deprived working class areas. The County Council should be supporting the young people of Warwickshire and be seeking ways of persuading the Government to find other ways of resolving the country’s debt problems. We have put forward a number of alternatives, including a 5% tax increase for the wealthiest 10% of the population, nationalizing the banks and financial institutions and using their profits to improve public services, and collecting the £120 billion owed by the wealthy through tax evasion or avoidance, “ he concluded.

The groups’ Trade Union Liaison Officer Roy Sandison was particularly concerned about the effects of these cuts on young people themselves. “The Youth Service targets its provision towards areas most in need. Removing the service will have a serious impact on local communities, particularly those in deprived areas”, he claimed.

Geoff Dewhirst (Warwickshire Branch secretary of Unite – Youth Work section) went further. “Youth clubs, and the activities within them, are the vehicles through which professional youth workers gain the trust and confidence of our more marginalised young people. Their purpose is to help those young people towards constructive and fulfilling engagement with others, their communities and society at large. Withdrawing this support, encouragement and role model can only lead to continued disaffection, at a time when it’s universally recognised that disaffection is the antithesis of cohesive, safer communities. Increases in youth unemployment mean that state funded youth provision should be expanded, not decimated,” he concluded.

NOTES

• Rugby Against the Cuts was set up by local trade unionists and political activists on September 22^nd. Officers were elected as above
• Rugby Against the Cuts meets on the second Thursday of every month, 7.30pm, at the Three Horse Shoes, Rugby
• Rugby Against the Cuts can be contacted on 07881 520626, atrugbyagainstthecuts@googlemail.com, or through our web site athttp://rugbyagainstthecuts.blogspot.com