Mariam Kamish, Caerphilly Trades Council secretary (personal capacity) and Socialist Party
Caerphilly Council isn’t broke! With £184 million in reserves, the Labour council doesn’t need to make these cuts.
Meals Direct delivers 125,000 meals a year to 320 people. A lifeline to the elderly and those living with serious disabilities.
Even those assessed as ‘in great need’ have to pay. For £5 a day, they get a hot lunch and a small dessert – plus a sandwich in the evening. Those not subsidised pay £6.
Blackwood Miners’ Institute is a key venue for live music, vital to the community. But the council says that the only alternative to closure would be finding a private operator.
Llancaiach Fawr is a grade-one listed building that’s appeared in films and Dr. Who. The council wants to close it as a living history museum – unless it can shunt it into the private sector.
Caerphilly Council Unison union secretary, Lianne Dallimore, has been spreading the news. The proposals are out to consultation until 10 September, but most people are only hearing about them now – and the reaction is shock.
These cuts don’t have to happen. The money is there.
Get your friends to the rallies and public meetings. Take posters around for people to stick in their windows.
Help build a massive campaign to save these pillars of local life.
- Rally and march – 7 September. Meet at 11:30 opposite Blackwood Library
The Socialist Party says:
- No closures! Save Blackwood Miners, Meals Direct and Llancaiach Fawr
- Dip into the council’s £184 million reserves as a temporary measure
- Band together with other councils to demand that the Welsh Labour government obtains adequate funding from the Labour government in Westminster
- Build a mass campaign of the community and trade unions to defend all services and jobs
- Make Meals Direct free – with two hot meals a day
- Councillors – represent those who elected you, or stand aside for genuine socialists prepared to fight for what our communities need
- Read what we’ve said before – ‘Save Caerphilly Meals on Wheels, Blackwood Miners’ Institute and Llancaiach Fawr Manor’
