Axe 1500 jobs. Close county farms. Lose local libraries. Now!
Somerset County Council leader Ken Maddock is tripping the light fantastic with the announcement of across-the-board cuts. Almost relishing the idea that he’s ahead of the Downing Street curve Tory Boy Maddock plans to chuck a quarter of the authorities’ workforce on the dole (that’s 1500 regional jobs), sell off 20 county owned farms, ditch plans to build schools and child centres, and close my local library.
But it’s OK: In-The-Red-Ken was quick to apologise for the closure of my library.
“I am very sorry for the people of Bruton but there just doesn’t seem to be another way out of this. We will make it as easy as we can for volunteers to keep the services going,”
Bless. The Big Society starts here. Never mind that the library had over 8000 people visit in 2009-10, has 543 members (including my two kids) and that folk use it to read books, access the net, and stay up to speed with community events.
Maddock went on to announce a second year’s freeze on Council Tax and the outsourcing of grants to a private company to help business and enterprise in the area. ToryTastic.