Cuts have dealt us a disgraceful hand says Robocop Mayor

“Robocop” Ray Mallon launched a blistering attack on the coalition Government yesterday for the “unfair” cuts to public sector budgets.

The elected Mayor of Middlesbrough said the effect of the budget reductions across the country would be felt more in poorer communities, particularly in the North East.

He commissioned a £15,000 report by regional government specialist Professor John Tomaney, of Newcastle University, which said the cuts would impact unevenly across the country.

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Areas which rely more heavily on the public sector for jobs would struggle more – and they tended to be areas with higher levels of social deprivation, it said.

The report concluded that public services would be reduced just as the level of need for them would increase.

Mr Mallon told a news conference at the Town Hall: “These cuts are too quick, too deep and too savage. This Government doesn’t understand what social deprivation looks like and they certainly don’t know what it feels like.

“It’s an open-and-shut case that Middlesbrough has been dealt a disgraceful hand.

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“I am angry and very disappointed that people like David Cameron and the people around him can treat us as badly as this.”

He said that, as a result of Middlesbrough’s latest settlement, £50m worth of cuts must be made over four years.

Then he heard that £8.9m to fight social deprivation would go too.

Mr Mallon is a former detective who won the Robocop tag for his tough stance on crime.

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Local Government Minister Grant Shapps said: “The settlement is progressive and fair to both North and South, and to rural and urban England.

“Middlesbrough is this year receiving £611 a head in Government grants – this compares with £186 a head in Mid-Sussex.”