Unions protest over council tax proposals (From The Northern Echo)

Unions protest over council tax proposals

10:26am Wednesday 17th February 2010 in Darlington By Paul Cook

HAVING THEIR SAY: Union members protest outside Darlington Town Hall yesterday

STAFF and union members picketed a town hall yesterday to urge council leaders to make a U-turn over budget proposals.

But Darlington Borough Council’s cabinet last night opted to support measures that will freeze council tax payments.

The freeze would save the council £4.7m – but would mean the loss of 77 jobs.

Town hall workers urged councillors to rethink the proposals and increase council tax by one per cent to protect working conditions.

About 60 people from four different unions, predominantly Unison, demonstrated outside the town hall before the meeting.

They spoke with senior councillors Bill Dixon and Chris McEwan to air their grievances.

They called for premium-rate overtime payments and essential car-user allowance payments not to be axed.

Some staff said the cuts were the equivalent of pay losses of up to £130 per month.

Councillor McEwan, cabinet member for efficiency and resources, promised workers the council would continue to negotiate with them on the proposals.

Deputy leader Coun Dixon, who chaired the meeting in the absence of leader John Williams, said: “We need to prepare for a couple of bad years.”

Union representatives and staff also spoke during the meeting.

Alan Docherty, Unison representative in Darlington, repeated a claim made at a previous meeting that a one per cent increase in tax would raise £400,000 to protect the payments.

He said the proposals impacted on the “lowest-paid, hardestworking”

members of staff.

He added: “We still think there is a long way to go. We are very disappointed that you are not prepared to look at increasing the council tax.

“Given the difficult times ahead and that inflation has peaked at 3.5 per cent, this would help the revenue budget.

“Once you don’t increase tax, the money has gone for good.”

Coun McEwan urged council workers to make their representations with individual cases through their unions.

He said: “We face challenging times and we must prepare for these challenging times. This means we have to make difficult decisions.”

Councillor Mike Barker, Liberal Democrat representative, said it was a “Conservative budget not a Labour budget”.

Councillor Charles Johnson, for the Conservatives, said: “It appears to be a one-off in an election year.”

The proposals, which must be decided by the full council next Thursday, include further tax rises in the following three years.