Southampton: Save Oaklands Pool

Fight all cuts

For a 'needs budget' to provide jobs and services

Southampton Socialist Party members

Coxteth councillors Keith and Don campaigning with others to save Oaklands pool, Southampton, photo Southampton SP (Click to enlarge)

Almost everyone comments on the irony that the government bathes in the glow of the Games while carrying out cuts to the very facilities athletes use and need.

Hundreds of people in Southampton have queued to sign the Save Oaklands Pool petition and register their anger against the recently elected Labour council.

A father whose son won an Olympic bronze medal, returned to the campaign stall for the second time, so determined was he to see young people have access to sport. The closure of the pool comes after the local youth centre was shut recently. The Olympic 'Inspire a Generation' slogan rings hollow if there's no facilities to exercise in!

Young people have supported the campaign, taking leaflets to give out. They don't want their community turned into a wasteland.

The pool is currently closed for minor repairs. The estimated cost is just £10,000. Scandalously the council actually sent in workers to undo some of the repair work that had already been carried out!

Rebel councillors

Local rebel councillors Keith Morrell and Don Thomas, who have defied the Labour whips and voted to oppose the cuts, have called on people to support a demonstration at the full council meeting from 1pm on Wednesday 12 September. Southampton council unions, Unite and Unison, have given their full backing to this protest.

They will be joined by Jim and Lorayne Emery and their supporters, who are fighting the council's decision to evict them from their tied house having been made redundant after 42 years' service to the council. Last week hundreds of supporters marched on the council demanding their right to stay.

Having argued against the vicious Tory council cuts of the last few years at the May elections, the Labour Party is rapidly proving to the voters that it is no different.

The only way to avert these cuts is to use current council financial reserves, make use of prudential borrowing facilities and build on the stand of Keith, Don and the unions and fight the Con-Dems for the funding needed to provide decent services for the city.

Southampton Socialist Party and the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, the electoral alliance we participate in, gives our full support to this fight.

We call on those Labour councillors who are members of Unite and Unison to vote with Keith and Don to reject the Con-Dem cuts or stand aside for those who are prepared to fight. If they were to link up with the council workforce and local people we could build a campaign to defeat all the cuts.

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In The Socialist 5 September 2012:

Fight the cuts

On 20 October... March Together and then we must... Strike Together! to end austerity