‘Labour must take pay cut to show leadership’ - Lib Dems

The Liberal Democrats are asking the Labour Cabinet at Hull Council to take the cut at today’s budget debate.

Their proposals would keep weekly bin collections in Hull, pay a “living wage” to council staff and keep threatened Anlaby Park library open.

But Labour said the Lib Dems were living in “cloud cuckoo land” and branded their budget “full of holes.” In any event the Lib Dem budget is doomed to fail because they only have 16 councillors to Labour’s 41.

The council, which is facing some of the highest Government cuts in the country, and is having to find £16m savings, has warned 600 jobs may go. Under Labour’s budget three customer service centre and some children centres face closure as well as the library and homecare charges will increase.

But the Lib Dems claim as well as keeping redundancies to just 50, their budget will allow for a “living wage” for staff of £7.45 an hour.

They also propose reducing the size of the Cabinet by a member and cutting senior councillors’ pay by five per cent to save £36,000.

Labour councillor Phil Webster said the Lib Dem plan was “headline grabbing and storing up problems for the future.”

He said: “Considering 85 per cent of the budget goes on wages, to actually say you can make cuts in other areas is an absolute nonsense. The Lib Dems have been caught playing student politics again.”