Cannock Chase Council cuts 'too much to bear'

That was the damning verdict of a senior politician on the cuts that Cannock Chase Council is facing.

The comments were made by Labour's shadow communities and local government minister Jon Trickett MP as he visited Cannock and Hednesford.

New figures have suggested that every person in Cannock has £250 less to spend now than they did in 2010 because of rising costs and bills.

This is on top of the increasing cuts to the council which will see it lose more than £2 million from the Government's downgrading of the revenue support grant, plus another £1.9 m in other Whitehall funding.

A total of £1m a year is also to be lost in business rates because of the closure of Rugeley power station, and council tax is rising by 1.95 per cent for the first time in a number of years.

Speaking exclusively to the Express & Star on his visit to the region, Mr Trickett praised Cannock Chase Council but insisted the cuts that were being forced upon it were 'not right'.

He said: "The councils are under the kosh. Nobody is saying that they can't be more efficient, I think you can always look to be more efficient, but the cuts which they are now facing are ridiculous. It's almost £250 per man, woman and child in this area and it's similar across this whole part of the Midlands.

"The cuts are ridiculous, they've got to an extent now where you can't provide proper services and I think councils provide services such as parks which are important to the community but also looking after elderly people.

"We all want our mum, dad, grandparents to be well looked after. Child protection is a big issues for councils as well. If these cuts go through I don't know what's going to happen to our elder people or to protecting our younger ones, it's really quite disturbing.

"I don't think these cuts are reasonable. They've gone too far, too fast and they're caused largely because the government has no intention of standing up to the richest people and these global corporations."

He added: "If you think about it, since Mr Osborne took over as chancellor, the wages of most people have gone down and in addition the social wage as we call it, which is for schools, potholes, communities, libraries, museums, looking after the elderly, that's been cut as well.

"It's £250 for every single man, woman and child in this area. It's just too much to bare and people are now beginning to see the results of the cuts. Obviously this council is using it's imagination to come up with good ideas but the truth is how long can we go on before something really bad happens, some sort of disaster?

"The truth is the government's got its priorities completely wrong and why should a community like Cannock Chase be effected in this way? It shouldn't be."