LETTER: 'Extra funds do not compensate for earlier cuts'

"I know the MP for Wakefield Imran Ahmad Khan hasn’t been the elected member for very long and even now we don’t know if he lives in the constituency but his article in the Wakefield Express last week, makes it seem as if he has had amnesia.
LETTER: 'Extra funds do not compensate for earlier cuts'LETTER: 'Extra funds do not compensate for earlier cuts'
LETTER: 'Extra funds do not compensate for earlier cuts'

"He concentrates on additional funding for local authorities and the police, but he fails to acknowledge the cuts to budgets over the last ten years in the name of austerity by his Conservative government.

"Any additional funding now, doesn’t compensate for those very significant losses, which have seen services to our community and jobs cut.

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"As a result many services that have survived are already cut to the bone, even though demand increases.

"He mentions funding for the police, but previous cuts, resulted in significant cuts in staffing. We saw it, particularly in terms of community policing. Any recruitment now, is merely to replace some of those losses.

"He mentions an increase in council tax, but the government has, for a fourth year, failed to produce its proposals on how the old and vulnerable will have their care financed. Instead local authorities are told to tax the council taxpayer.

"He refers to flooding, but again the budget and staffing for the Environment Agency has been decimated and then it gets criticised for failing.

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"Finally, he promises that we will recover and prosper, but so many have had cuts to their benefits over many years and in the current climate are losing their jobs.

"Poverty, particularly child poverty is increasing in our district. How are those affected going to recover and prosper?"

Olivia Rowley

WMDC councillor