Manchester Council Budget Meeting

Manchester City Council's budget meeting, at which Labour councillors planned to vote through £109 million cuts to adult services, was very nearly prevented by a noise demonstration from the public which stopped the meeting twice. But the Labour-controlled council was determined to implement the cuts, and ignore the results of their own public consultation which had produced mass expressions of opposition to them. It was not clear whether they actually 'voted' on the cuts, but simply assumed that all the Labour councillors, who form the majority group, agreed with them. By that stage of the meeting, the mayor could not make himself heard to take an individual poll of the councillors.

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About 100 people, including council workers, trade union representatives, and members of Manchester Coalition Against the Cuts gathered outside the town hall well before the meeting. They were told by council staff that 80 of them would be 'allowed' into the public gallery. Since the full council meeting has to be open to the public, no permission is needed to attend it and when the doors were opened the demonstrtators poured in without giving any council staff a chance to count the permitted 80 persons. The chanting and heckling started even before they got to the council chamber and continued inside. The councillors who were already there looked worried. The people chanted "Vote for the people, not for the Tories" and "This is what demoncracy looks like, that's not what democracy looks like", and at individual councillors as they walked in, "Which way are you going to vote?"

They refused to stand up when the Mayor came in and continued to shout and stamp on the floor. The Mayor's threat to have 'people who cause trouble' removed was answered by jeers. He then decided to adjourn the meeting for ten minutes. During the break the Labour leader, councillor Leese, went up to address the publlic gallery and told people "This meeting WILL go ahead."

It went ahead, but staggered along through the constant noise from the public gallery. Labour Councillor Bernard Priest tried to speak on the party's budget cuts, but was immediately drowned out by the public. The Mayor ordered another 15 minute adjournment. Councillor Priest later got to make his speech but the hypocrisy was sickening. He acknowledged the replies the council had had to its so-called public consultation and said that they had been carefully considered. But it was clear the Labour Party was going to cut services regardless. He acknowledged that the council was "accountable to the public" but said that it "had to be prudent." He used the lame, unoriginal excuse that the cuts had been forced on them by the Coalition government and concluded "There will be no councillors surcharged or any of that nonsense."

My thought on that was, "Why not?" But then I'm not a councillor or a member of the party political elite.  They're as attached to power as a dog is to a marrow bone. It would never cross their minds to resign on principle or to refuse to implement cuts for which neither they nor central government has any mandate.

The leader of the Liberal Democrats, councillor Wheale, put their amendment to the council. He claimed their budget proposal would prevent cuts to services but there was no chance of it ever being tested. The Labour Party promptly shouted it down; there was no vote.

As it came up to the point when the council had to vote on the budget cuts, the public caused maximum disruption, increased the shouting, chanting and stamping. Someone threw attack alarms on to the floor of the council chamber. None of the councillors could make themselves heard and so were not able to actually take a vote. After about ten minutes of the tremendous noise, the Mayor said someting into his microphone and all the Liberal Democrate councillors stood up and started to walk out. It looked as though he had assumed that the budget cuts would be carried simply because the Labour Party has a majority on the council, about 58 councillors to the Liberal Democrats' 31.

The cuts will close libraries, leisure centres, youth services, Sure Start centres and the whole of Manchester's Advice Service. Some of the advice workers were in tears: they had just seen their jobs abolished in a few seconds. The abolition of the advice service will have probably the biggest impact on Manchester citizens. The voluntary sector (organisations like the Citizens Advice Bureau and Shelter) simply doesn't have the capacity to take on the extra work.