Paul Couchman, Surrey Socialist Party member and SOSiS secretary
Save Our Services in Surrey (SOSiS) brought together residents, trade union reps and community campaigners to lobby Woking’s Lib Dem council on 30 November.
Chanting “save our services, stop the cuts”, protesters called for a halt to cuts, an end to service charge rises, and for the council to take the fight to save Woking services to the government.
But council leaders said they had no choice but to follow the diktats of government commissioners, who are being paid over £1,000 each per day by the council to oversee the decimation of our public services.
According to charity Scope, the additional cost of being disabled is £975 per month. And only 7% of working disabled people earn over £30,000 a year. Those who most need services are least able to pay.
Council leaders spoke about raising £15 million per year. But services are costing £45 million. Protesters argued that they should refuse to make cuts and make the government fund the shortfall.
Save Our Services in Surrey is planning a campaign meeting on 4 January, and is building towards a major protest outside the full council budget-setting meeting on 8 February.
