Knowsley Council will have to make savings of more than £30m over the next 2 years due to the CONDEM Government funding cuts.  This is a 20% reduction in our budget.  Councils across the country are struggling to find ways to deal with these cuts and you will have seen headlines announcing closures of libraries and sports centres and massive numbers of compulsory redundancies elsewhere.

We take the opportunity to remind you that the Lib Dem opposition councillors in Knowsley support the savage cuts which will affect us all, particularly the poorer paid and more vulnerable residents.

Your Labour Councillors are managing the problem differently.  Of course, we still have to reduce our spending and at these levels of funding reductions services will be affected.  But the difference in Knowsley is that we are introducing the changes across the Council in a planned way, so we are making sure that the services you value and depend upon are protected. 

In 2011/12 alone, we are dealing with over £23m of required savings but the majority of these savings will be achieved by streamlining services to make them more efficient, reducing management levels and the numbers of senior managers, and cutting support and administration to the minimum.

“I have never known of cuts on a scale such as these before.  In order to recommend a balanced budget with a zero Council tax increase we have had to debate long and hard over a period of months.  Over 400 jobs are being lost to this Council but at least we have been able to manage this without compulsory redundancies.  Of course it is not possible to lose this number of jobs without there being an impact on services but we will always endeavour to limit the impact on individuals, families, and communities.

We are also looking at innovative ways to access jobs in private sector companies in Knowsley for residents that you can read about elsewhere in this paper.  Some of the affected Knowsley Council employees will therefore be able to take up alternative jobs.”

A planned financial approach has always been the case in Knowsley and this has moved into overdrive this year.  Our number one aim is to manage our way through this minefield and come out the other side with services that still meet the needs of Knowsley residents, minimise the numbers of job losses and set a Council Tax level that is still one of the lowest in Merseyside

Jaguar Land Rover along with other local companies including IAC, DHL, QVC, Vertex, and Decoma were among the subscribers to two recent jobs fairs organised by Knowsley Borough Council.  These jobs fairs were highly successful with scores of people being offered employment on the spot.

The Knowsley Employment and Skills team has worked with many of our Halewood residents over the last year and has found employment for over 300 of them.  We congratulate these companies and thank the people involved for helping some of our residents to find work.

The Halewood Labour Party knows there are many employment challenges being faced by lots of our residents, amplified by the actions of this present government.  So we make no excuse for publishing here an extract from a telling speech made by one of our Labour colleagues at the February meeting of Knowsley Council:


“Many of you will be aware of the efforts we have been making to protect people from the impact of the CONDEM Government’s cuts regime, and the intention was simply for the Council’s Knowsley Works team to host a Jobs Fair aimed at supporting those of our own workforce who were faced with leaving the Council to find new roles within the private sector.  This was similar to what we did for the former Ethel Austin staff following the collapse of that company last year.

Over 2,000 jobs were identified, 1,200 of which were available on the day itself. I attended these events and I must admit that it was heart breaking to have to witness what I saw – highly skilled workers, many with long service records basically being cast adrift by the unnecessary and irresponsible actions of this temporary makeshift government. 

No one in that room on that day was responsible for the situation that they found themselves in, but I’m pleased to say that the people of Knowsley and indeed the people of Merseyside can rely on this Labour Council to protect them from the worst effects of what the Tories and the Liberal Democrats are trying to do to our region.

It is a national disgrace that this current Government doesn’t care at all for this region.  All I can see from their actions to date is a wilful and concerted effort to ruin the lives of people in our area whilst at the same time seeking to ensure that the rich become richer.  Colleagues, I’m pleased to say that we won’t stand by and let it happen.”