Bins strike protesters and frustrated residents gathered to voice their anger as Birmingham Council considered its latest budget plans.
The city has been forced to endure a turbulent period over the past couple of years amid a financial crisis at the Labour-run council and an ongoing bins strike.
Amid a huge financial black hole, the council previously approved an alarming wave of cuts to local services, hiked council tax and disposed of more than £250 million worth of ‘assets’.
But with the £300 million budget gap now reportedly closed, council leader John Cotton has argued that the ‘bankrupt Birmingham’ tag has now been ditched.
At a budget meeting today, he argued that proposals for the next financial year had shown the local authority had ‘turned a corner’.
“Birmingham is my city,” he told the council chamber. “I’ve lived here all my life – and I was determined to get this council, and the city, back on track.
“This budget does exactly that.
“Make no mistake, there will be no backtracking on the progress that we have made over the last two years.
“But it is undeniable that Birmingham City Council is back in the mainstream of local government after setting a steady course to long-term stability.”
He also said that an extra £130 million is being invested in council services, focusing on “cleaner, safer streets and better local services”.
With local elections fast approaching, Coun Cotton said the city faces a choice between “fresh ambition and progress with Labour” or “opening the door to a politics of division and despair”.
But despite optimistic talk of fresh hope from Birmingham Labour, anger over recent turmoil continues to linger over the council.
Jean Cross, a resident who had fought to try and save the now-shut Harborne Day Centre, described recent cuts as “drastic” before the meeting got under way.
Referencing comments by council leader John Cotton, she said: “It’s not great days ahead for the people who have suffered from the cuts.”
Bin strike workers and their supporters also gathered before the meeting, putting up signs urging Labour to ‘end the bin strike’ and demanding a ‘fair deal now’.
Birmingham Labour came under fire from opposition councillors too, with Conservative group leader Robert Alden slamming the ‘double whammy of higher taxes for fewer services’.
“This talk of fixing the council from the failed Labour administration is just that – talk,” he said.
He also said that recent turmoil had attracted headlines about rubbish and rats, saying: “This is the legacy that the next administration of Birmingham will inherit from the Labour council.”
He claimed the Tories’ plans would ‘clean up the streets’ and keep weekly bin collections, adding: “Do the Labour group really expect residents to thank them now they’ve claimed to have fixed the council after they effectively bankrupted it.
“Do they really expect anyone to believe that Birmingham Labour is the party to clear the rubbish?”
Liberal Democrat councillor Roger Harmer meanwhile argued that a “full recovery” from the financial crisis is still “some way away”.
In particular, he pointed to issues such as the need to sell more assets, Oracle and the ongoing Birmingham bins strike, which he argued is entwined with the crisis.
“We are far from being out of the woods,” he said.
Green Party councillor Julien Pritchard condemned claims that the era of ‘bankrupt Birmingham’ was over, saying: “Tell that to the residents in […] left behind neighbourhoods across the city.”
It was Birmingham specific-issues, such as the equal pay debacle and the disastrous implementation of an IT system, that contributed to the financial woes which engulfed the council.
Labour councillors have also pointed the finger at funding cuts during the previous Conservative government.
Striking bin workers have previously claimed they face a pay cut of £8,000 – the council has disputed this figure and insisted that a fair offer had been made before negotiations came to an end last summer.
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