Rachel Smith, recently selected as Green Party candidate for Minchinhampton, for the Gloucestershire County Council elections next year, celebrated her candidacy by going to Westminister to meet with National Green Co-Leaders Caroline Lucas, MP, and Jonathan Bartley. Along with other local councillors, she handed in a letter to the Treasury, demanding that the Government reverse planned cuts to local authority budgets ahead of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement.
This letter asked the Government to plug the core funding gap of £5.84 billion that the Local Government Association (LGA) says councils face between now and 2020. In the letter the group say that reversing the planned cuts is essential to protect frontline services such as support for users of adult social care, older people, those with disabilities or special educational needs, survivors of domestic violence, and low-income families in crisis.
Speaking after handing in the letter Smith commented:
“I am proud to be standing for a party which has consistently opposed cuts and sought practical ways to work for the common good. Council cuts affect all of us, but their affect can be devastating to the most vulnerable people in our communities. In my work as a music therapist I see health and social care services coming under increasing strain. That’s why with the Green Party, I am calling on the Government to properly fund local councils so they can meet their social care commitments.
The Minchinhampton Gloucestershire County Council Division (the Golden Valley area of Stroud District, which includes Chalford, Bussage, Thrupp, Minchinhampton and Box) is a beautiful area, and I am looking forward if elected to working with people in the division on creating solutions to the challenges the area faces and maintaining its vibrancy”.
Martin Whiteside, Leader of Stroud Greens at Stroud District Council said: “In Stroud District we will see the Revenue Support Grant disappear in 2018/2019 and in 2019/20 the Council will have to pay back £549,00 to Central Government. The Council is being punished for doing a good job and we are having to make tough decisions on whether we retain local services and we urge the Chancellor to use the Autumn Statement to throw a lifeline to local councils before it is too late”.