Under Pressure
Further pressure is being placed on Labour Leader Mohammed Pervez, his Cabinet colleagues and senior officers at Stoke-on-Trent City Council over savings schemes that are falling apart costing more than before the savings were proposed.
Exclusively revealed last week by PotteriesEYE extra bin crews are having to be dispatched to cover the none collection of hundreds of bin across the city, due to the council making changes to contracts regarding overtime, costing bin lorry driver hundreds of pound in salary.
Duncan Walker of the Labour Party has undermined claims by Geoff Dunne, Strategic Manager of the service, who had claimed that all bins were being collected the next day where crews had missed the proper collection day.
Speaking to the Sentinel on Saturday he said:
“The council sent an extra crew to empty our blue bins on Friday, August 10.
“They had not been emptied since July 25 and should have been emptied on August 8, so our collection was missed completely. These extra runs must be costing money.”
Tensions are building up in the Labour Group, where some have close ties with trade unions across the authority.
A senior Labour member, who did not wish to be named for fear of reprisals, said:
We had been told all the issues over these contracts and the unions had been resolved.
It has been very hard this last couple of years as Labour members having to make such drastic cuts and redundancies. We had no choice and put faith in our leaders and officers. What trust can we have now when we are told one thing and the opposite happens.
There appears to be another big set of cuts coming. I can see us reaching breaking point in the Labour Party the way things are going.
Insiders have already revealed their fears to PotteriesEYE last week that up to 10% of staff are to go in the next phase of cuts for 2013.
5 comments
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LoveStoke
August 20, 2012 at 10:33 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
It’s a bit late now for Labour members to say its “been hard”. My heart bleeds. Not as hard as is it for these families losing money and their jobs!
Call yourselves socialists? There isn’t one in the Labour Group, not one.
Old Comrade
August 20, 2012 at 10:49 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Hard to believe Meredith was part of Militant all those years ago.
Yeah I remember you hawking the Militant magazine outside Labour meetings in Longton at the Co-op building. Shame on you.
Alan Barrett
August 20, 2012 at 5:17 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
As long as we pay for his annual jolly to the Cannes Film Festival … I mean … fact finding business trip …. he won’t be bothered.
Mike Barnes
August 21, 2012 at 9:20 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Don’t think it was the film festival Alan, but I get your drift.
archeralan
August 22, 2012 at 9:24 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
“A senior Labour member, who did not wish to be named for fear of reprisals,” This says it all about how low the Labour party has sunk. Any organisation that suppresses free speech and genuine constructive critiscism has no place in a democratic society. Councillors are elected to serve the people of their wards and not to kow tow to bullying tactics from out of touch leadership.