Following the outbreak of violence at Lewisham town hall last night during an anti-cuts protest, Green Party national spokesperson and Lewisham councillor Darren Johnson said:
"There are better ways of saving money than deep cuts in essential services. We should be looking at reducing the high salaries of senior officers and cutting the budgets for consultants, PR and marketing. These are things we should cut before we think of closing early learning centres or reducing street cleaning."
Darren Johnson, a former chair of the London Assembly and one of the Green Party's leading figures, voted against the cuts package which was presented to Lewisham Council last night.
Mr Johnson said today:
"The Government is forcing local authorities to make cuts by slashing the amount of funding each council gets. I strongly oppose what the Conservative/Lib Dem Government are doing nationally. But I am also appalled with how Labour are going about this locally. Labour's plans amount to a massacre of local services."
Alternative to cuts
Before last night's meeting he had urged Lewisham council to pursue an alternative course of action. Darren Johnson said then:
"Rather than making cuts to frontline services I want to see Mayor Steve Bullock make savings by slashing senior executive pay, cutting the millions spent on expensive private sector consultants and cutting down on glossy PR and council spin."
The Mayor's cuts programme, which was presented to councillors last night, was typical of the kind of cuts that are coming before councils all over the country. It included closing the Early Years Centre in New Cross and cuts to nurseries, street cleansing, parks and schools improvement teams.
Rather than cutting vital services Greens want to see local authorities make savings by:
· Cutting senior pay for top council executives.
· Reducing the millions spent on expensive private sector consultants.
· Cutting down on glossy PR and council spin.
· Reducing council fuel bills by making our schools, libraries and other buildings more energy efficient.
· Working more closely with other public sector bodies to cut admin costs.
As well as attacking Labour for their ill thought-out plans locally, Darren Johnson was strongly critical of the Conservative/Lib Dem Coalition's plans nationally. He said:
"The Government argue that these cuts will help clear the deficit. But experts have warned these cuts will harm the economy, not help it.
"Cuts this big will simply increase unemployment, meaning that the government raises less in taxes and will have to spend more on benefits.
"Green MP, Caroline Lucas, has set out an alternative plan to tackle the deficit. Instead of hitting public services she has shown how we can tackle the deficit by increasing taxes for the very wealthiest, introducing a Robin Hood Tax on financial transactions, clamping down on the billions lost through tax evasion and tax avoidance, and scrapping the Trident nuclear weapons programme."