News / Politics
Mayor defends plans to cut 1,000 jobs
Marvin Rees has defended council cuts of 1,000 jobs ahead of a demonstration by unions at a meeting of full council.
The mayor of Bristol said he would do everything to protect front-line services, but said this would only be possible through job losses at City Hall.
Earlier this week, Unite the union called on Rees to rethink his plans to cut £29 million from the budget. The Green Party and the People’s Assembly both called on the mayor to reject the Government’s austerity policies which have seen annual cuts to council funding from Whitehall.
is needed now More than ever
Rees said on Tuesday: “I agree with Unite that austerity is a political choice that impacts on services and vulnerable people.
————–
Read more: ‘Rees needs to show leadership over cuts’
————–
“The cuts are a false economy. I am not entering the argument about big government versus small government. Rather I am committed to government that is resourced adequately to do the job our partners and the population need to do.
“The current approach undermines our ability to build society and invest in early intervention resulting in down-stream consequences that are tragedies for the individuals and communities and costly to public services and business.
“Despite the financial challenges we are faced with, I am committed to keeping my promises to the Bristol public, maintaining our life-and-limb services and doing all I can to fix our foundations, move resources to where it most matters and do all I can to improve people’s lives with the resources I’ve got.
“I will invite the unions, other political parties and city partners to work with us, to make a case to central government, for funds to ease the pressures on services in Bristol.”
Read more: Unions to demonstrate against council cuts
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
