1,000 Dudley Council jobs at risk claim Labour

More than 1,000 people could find themselves out of a job when the full impact of Dudley Council's £35 million budget cuts are revealed, opposition councillors claimed.

As part of a heated debate in the chamber yesterday, shadow cabinet member for finance Councillor Pete Lowe spoke against the council's proposals for next year's budget. "There will be 429 full-time equivalent jobs going this year, rising to 828 full-time equivalent jobs to go within a three-year period," he told members of the council during the debate.

"But what we should not forget is that the majority of Dudley Council employees are part time workers.

"This means, by my calculations, that the full impact of job cuts could be in excess of 1,000."

During his speech, he told the meeting that the council's policy of "front-loading" the cuts — meaning most of the cuts have to be made within the first year — was "fundamentally wrong".

"Within Dudley the cuts will lead to the vulnerable and those less fortunate being adversely affected including the young, the elderly, the sick and unwell," he said.

"If this is what the Tories mean by a fairer society then I renounce it."

The authority says it must make spending cuts of £22 million this year as the first phase of the three-year budget plan due to reductions in Government grants.

Contributions to charity groups, support for council-run family centres and cash for hanging baskets and flower beds around the borough are among the cutbacks planned.

During the heated debate at the Council House, in St James Road, the opposition group was accused of being "all bluster".

"If the Labour group is so opposed to everything we have suggested, why have they not come up with an alternative budget?" asked Councillor Patrick Harley.

"We have heard nothing constructive from the party opposite at all.

"Instead, we've had the usual suspects getting to their feet and simply opposing every measure we propose."

Speaking after the meeting, leader of the Labour party Councillor David Sparks said: "It is a Tory-led government forcing these cuts to be made, and a Tory council making these cuts."