The fact that this government has inflicted 13 years of cuts to local government budgets did not feature in debates at the Conservative party conference this week, but the impact of these budget cuts has been to rip local services to shreds and to tear the heart out of many local communities.
Richard Partington (As Britain’s town hall services crumble, the case for reform is overwhelming, 1 October) rightly points out that the crisis extends far beyond Birmingham and the handful of local authorities facing bankruptcy. My own local authority, once proud to be among the highest performing local government authorities in England, has had nearly 45% of its budget cut since 2012, and now flounders near the bottom of the pile.
Austerity is not merely a fiscal equation on a balance sheet, but something that causes pain and distress to millions of vulnerable people, and diminishes the quality of everyone’s community life. The real cost of this central government butchery can be measured in the absence of social care for the elderly and the most vulnerable; the closure of children’s centres, swimming pools and libraries; a deterioration in the maintenance of recreational spaces such as parks and playgrounds; and the loss of financial support for activities that support and strengthen local communities. This tattered inventory is the true indictment of this miserly and neglectful government, and should have been splattered all over the city of Manchester this week.
Peter Riddle
Wirksworth, Derbyshire
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