A political organisation set up by the Wirral TUC almost four years ago is set to relaunch one of its campaigns against library closures and budget cuts.
Wirral Council has just completed the first stage of the consultation process to find out which services residents most value.
The council spoke to over 13,000 people at over 150 events, visiting shopping centres, supermarkets, community centres, bingo halls during the past six weeks to make sure as many people as possible had their say.
Budget cuts are expected to be in excess of £39 million in the next year.
A report released by the council following the consultation stated: “Non-universal, optional services such as libraries and leisure centres and underutilised One Stop shops were mentioned frequently as being appropriate services to reduce.”
Leader of the Wirral Council, Phil Davies said: “The scale of the savings we are being forced to make is greater than anything we have faced before. Cabinet will be discussing the results of the consultation on November 8th.”
Back in 2008/2009 Wirral council faced a lot of criticism when they had plans to close 11 libraries but the proposals were scrapped.
The Wirral TUC group is reviving the ‘Wirral Against Cuts’ organisation to fight the council’s proposed decision to close local libraries and further budget cuts in the local community.
Company secretary Alec McFadden believes the council should find other ways to save money. He told JMU Journalism: “We are trying to organise local communities and local workers to stop this happening. It’s not just the libraries at risk this time there are a lot of jobs at risk, even the people that cut the grass in the park are at risk.”