Sue Atkins, Southampton Socialist Party
Socialist Party member Nick Chaffey made a deputation to oppose St Mary’s Leisure Centre being put out to the private sector, as the Labour council plans. Without numerous campaigns to keep it open since 2004, it would have closed long ago.
St Mary’s is the only sports facility serving the most deprived communities in Southampton. We have paid for these facilities over decades, and we want them to stay in council hands, with well-paid, permanent staff, accountable and under democratic control.
As if this was not bad enough, the council also plans to sell off 16 buildings in the city centre, and 16 car parks across the city, but won’t say which until they are sold, citing “commercial sensitivity”. The details of this were discussed behind closed doors, with the visitors’ gallery cleared. One councillor said that there would be “uproar” from the public if the locations were revealed.
The council also plans to dispose of two water-activity centres that it owns. The council has a ‘transformation programme’ of £51 million cuts. A consultancy company is being paid £9 million to advise on achieving this “transformation”!
A further equivalent of 85 full-time jobs are to go this year, on top of 1,000 already cut. The Labour council has described this as an “extraordinary achievement and a success for the authority and the people who depend on those services”. This is the opposite of reality.
I have since spoken to a member of staff, whose job has been ‘deleted’. They say that remaining staff are terrified of being made redundant in the next round of cuts. With a Labour council and a Labour government, nothing is changing, and austerity continues.
It is even more important that we continue to stand socialist anti-cuts candidates in county council elections this year and in Southampton next year. The trade unions and our communities have the power to link up to mount a mass campaign to win the funding from the government for a budget based on our needs.
