Scrap the budget cuts

We the undersigned call to scrap Bristol City Council’s proposed budget cuts.

Bristol City Council’s proposed budget cuts include more than £11 million cuts to adult social care[1]. The council explain that the cuts are necessary to meet an overall budgetary shortfall of £19.5 million.

In an online announcement on 3rd December the Labour council provides no opposition to the budget cuts. Instead, the cuts are described as ways of ‘working more efficiently’, ‘making besat use’ of property, ‘removing unnecessary duplication, and getting best value from our suppliers’[2]. The result of these apparently laudable aims is not to cut the salaries of highly paid council leaders. Instead, despite statutory obligations under the Care Act 2014[3], the impact of the proposed budget is predominantly targeted at adult social care. Such cuts threaten the lives of Disabled people who are already struggling with reduced support services and have been the hardest hit by the pandemic.

A supposed consultation carried out in December was inaccessible to many of the city’s residents and did not include details of the budgetary proposals. Local government decision making is subject to the need for adequate consultation as defined by the Gunning principles[4]. There must be

“sufficient information to give ‘intelligent consideration’. The information provided must relate to the consultation and must be available, accessible, and easily interpretable for consultees to provide an informed response”