Diana Johnson MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
|
COUNCILLOR GARY WAREING
Drypool Ward
The Guildhall
Alfred Gelder
Street
HULL
HU1 2AA
Tel No 01482 613583
Fax No 01482
613046
Our Ref: GW/
13th
September 2013
|
Dear Diana
I am in response to
your letter to Steve Brady copied to Labour Councillors regarding the leisure
facilities at Ennerdale.
In your letter you
state
We write to express our opposition to the proposal,
currently being consulted on, to close the swimming pool at Ennerdale Leisure Centre.
I fully
agree with you opposition to the proposed closure but who is supporting the
closure.
We
fully acknowledge that this option is only being forced on Labour councillors
by the unfair and disproportionately heavy funding cuts being imposed on Hull
City Council by the Lib Dem-backed Coalition Government.
What are
you going to do about it is the question; mere support doesn’t answer the
question. What will a Labour Government
do, will a Labour government restore the funding?
As you know, each person in Hull, the country’s tenth most deprived
area, will lose £228.36 between 2010 and 2015 in funding to Hull – equating to
£90m coming out of the Council’s budget. Meanwhile, Surrey Heath, the 324th
most deprived area, loses only £24.54 per head over the same period.
This is why we launched the Fair Deal for Hull campaign earlier this
year on the issue of the distribution of local government funding from
Whitehall. This campaign is opposed by Lib Dem Opposition Group in Hull. This
is not surprising, given that without Lib Dem support for the Tories in the
Coalition such unjust treatment of Hull would not have been possible in the
first place.
Whilst I
fully the support the sentiment behind the Fair Deal for Hull petition, there
is little evidence of a campaign. And
again the real question is what will the next Labour government do? If £90 Million is taken from Hull will an
incoming Labour government return the money to Hull City Council?
For
our part, we voted against these cuts to Hull in Parliament and we will
continue to promote the Fair Deal for Hull at every opportunity. As part of
this campaign we also support the campaign by users of Ennerdale to save their
swimming pool.
“For our
part we voted against these cuts to Hull in Parliament” well excuse me but BIG
DEAL. It’s very easy to be against cuts
when you are in opposition when quite frankly your vote didn’t account for
much. That is exactly what the Lib Dems
are doing now in Hull in opposition.
The cost savings by Hull City Council including
Ennerdale are the result of the council budget passed in February, a budget you
supported as for my part I did vote against the cuts to Hull in February.
We
hope that you will also work with users of Ennerdale to explore every possible
idea and option that would keep this pool open for Hull residents.
Sounds
remarkably like David Cameron’s big society; you can have services as long as
you provide them yourself.
There
are a series of reasons why Ennerdale should be the last pool that should be considered
for closure in Hull – not the first.
Well
quite frankly I don’t want to see any of the facilities in the city close. But what you are actually saying here is
“not in my backyard”. It’s not ok for
other facilities to close so that this one can stay open.
For
our part, we will do everything possible to get a Fair Deal for Hull. Part of
this means working imaginatively to secure a future for important facilities
serving the whole city, such as Ennerdale.
Austerity
simply means “make the people pay”, make the people pay with lost jobs, lower
wages, zero hours contracts, reduced rights at work, reduced benefits, later
pensions, lower living standards and cuts to services like Ennerdale. The Labour Party and its representatives
should not be part of implementing the Coalition government’s austerity plans.
Labour councillors are being put on the
spot. If we “ do the Tories job for
them” as one Labour councillor put it, it will Labour councillors who take the
blame. We were not elected to implement
austerity. We were not elected to be the local agents of the coalition. Many of us campaign against the cuts imposed
by Minns and the Liberal Democrat administration. We should not give in to the
blackmail of Eric Pickles and the threats of taking over the council.
Labour Councillors face a real
dilemma.
What is required from Labour leaders in
the city is a real campaign for a fair deal for Hull. A joint campaign of the Labour MPs, Councillors, party members,
Trade Unions and most importantly the residents of the city and users of the
services like the swimming pools.
In the best traditions of the Labour
movement a united campaigns to defend all services and all facilities.
We should not be discussing the order that
services or facilities close.
What is required is a Peoples Assembly
type event in Hull bringing together the labour movement, councillors, ward
parties, trade unions and the community groups in the city.
This forum could then decided the best way
forward for a Labour Council in opposing the Coalition governments Austerity.
Yours sincerely
COUNCILLOR GARY
WAREING
DRYPOOL WARD