Unison view backed

East Sussex Unison last week celebrated the decision of the
social services committee to oppose proposed cuts, recommending
that the council confronts the government on the issue.

Members of the union organised a lobby of the meeting. The
committee – faced with plans for £7.6 million cuts over two
years caused by changes to government grant – pledged itself to
‘resist by every possible means any cuts in services provided by
the social services department…to vulnerable people’.

Alex Knutsen of Unison commented: ‘If we’d scripted the
statement ourselves, I don’t think we could have done much
better.’

The full council, which is controlled by a Liberal
Democrat/Labour coalition, meets in November and could overrule
last week’s decision..