Leader of Stratford-on-Avon District Council Stephen Gray said it accepted public spending cuts were "inevitable" to tackle the country’s budget deficit. The council said it had already made contingency plans for Spending Review cutbacks and these did not involve front-line services being trimmed back, but simply a programme of efficiency improvements.
Midlands workers figured among Jaguar Land Rover members who have voted for a pay deal which union leaders hailed. Unite said 74% of workers at Halewood, Castle Bromwich and Solihull accepted the deal which will see pay increase by 5% this year and by RPI inflation plus 0.5% the following year.
The coalition’s spending cuts means specialist funding for sports schools and colleges across the Black Country and Staffordshire will be axed. The funding will return to the central schools budget and redistributed amongst all secondary schools.
A new food centre which transforms dinners at a Black Country hospital opens this week – £750,000 under budget. The new multi-million pound centre and 13 ward kitchens were due to open at Wolverhampton’s New Cross Hospital on Monday (November 1).
Twenty fire engines were at the scene when a 15th Century pub and two other buildings were gutted in a blaze in a historic part of Hereford city centre. Bus services in St Peter’s Square had been disrupted, said police, who added that the fire was believed to have been caused by an electrical fault. More than 100 firefighters were called to the old High Town area, where Booth Hall and a number of shops were engulfed in flames.
Over-budget arts centre The Public is to get another £1.5 million of Sandwell Council cash a year despite cuts to jobs and front line services. Even though the local authorities vowed that the £72m centre would not get any more taxpayers’ money, council leader Darren Cooper confirmed £1.5m has been set aside. This is three times the £500,000 the council has quoted as its annual contribution in the past.
A significant slice of about £35 million has been taken off the budgets of more than 120 regeneration projects across the West Midlands. Doomed regional development agency Advantage West Midlands (AWM) has been ordered to take 10 per cent off its existing budget this year as part of a round of Government spending cuts. AWM said it had cut £34.8m from its regeneration projects by axing 11 and cutting back on 110 others.
This week’s annual Conservative Party conference at Birmingham faced a BBC blackout due to a strike. The public would have been denied seeing Prime Minister David Cameron’s first speech as national leader, but the walkout was ended by new negotiations thanks to an “improved” offer from BBC management over pension conditions. Members of Bectu, the National Union of Journalists and Unite are digesting the new deal.
Nottingham City Council was among the pioneers of an official anti-smoking stance when it introduced a ban on workers taking smoke breaks during working hours in 2005. Increasing numbers of bodies are doing the same, as workers could be forced to clock off when they go for a cigarette under proposals made by a Norfolk council.
More than 296,000 school days were lost to term-time holidays in the Black Country and Staffordshire in a year, mainly because high prices led to parents booking breaks during term time. Councillor Ian Parry, Staffordshire’s cabinet member for children, said: “I also appreciate that the price of holidays during August in particular is completely unfair on hard-working families.