P-05-840 Fair Funding for Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council and all other Local Authorities
P-05-840 Fair Funding for Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council and all other Local Authorities
P-05-840
Fair Funding for Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council and all other Local
Authorities
This petition was submitted by Unison, having collected 225 signatures.
Text of
Petition
The Welsh
Government need to go through their budgets line by line and eliminate wasteful
spending to ensure that they protect public services in across Wales. We use
Neath Port Talbot as an example, throughout this petition, being residents and
employees of NPTCBC, but with the understanding that every unitary authority in
Wales is under extreme financial pressure.
We agree
that every authority has a role to play in eliminating wasteful spending, but
when considering service provision now, the only question in each authority is
"Is it good enough?" rather than "Is it Best Practice?";
but Neath Port Talbot Council have eliminated any wasteful spending and is now
at the position whereby it needs to consider closing non-statutory services
such as parks and leisure, in direct contradiction of Welsh Government
legislation such as the Future Generations and Social Services and Well-Being
Acts, and we are now down to the bare bones.
The Welsh
Government now need to spend smarter not spend less, without smart spending by
Welsh Government our community will see key services scaled back or lost.
Further budget cuts will devastate local jobs, services and communities. Neath
Port Talbot County Borough Council are a major employer and any more reduction
of funding will have a huge impact on the local economy as it will in each
Local Authority in Wales.
Additional Information
Neath
Port Talbot County Borough Council is one of the most deprived councils in
Wales and requires additional funding to maintain the services provided to the
most vulnerable within the Borough. Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council
are the major employer in the area and any reduction in funding will have a
detrimental impact on employment and the ability for these vital services to be
sustainable and remain in-house. Budget cuts will result in more deprivation in
our communities, compulsory redundancies with services gone
forever.
Lack of
funding to Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council results in disruptive,
costly and poor quality service provision; the loss of employment
opportunities, employees terms and conditions and most importantly the loss of
democratic accountability if services are lost to the private or third sector
and the depletion of reserve budgets. We agree with Welsh Government’s vision
that everybody in Wales should live in well-connected vibrant, viable and sustainable
communities with a strong local economy and good quality of life. In order for
this vision to succeed we must safeguard public services which will ensure the
safety and wellbeing of our residents across Wales with better outcomes for
all.
Wiser
allocation of finances is essential to ensure a vibrant, integrative social
care model fit for the 21st Century. Local Authorities in Wales require
the transformational funding to be awarded to them in order that delayed
transfers of care from hospital provisions is not the outcome for vulnerable
and often frail residents. Welsh Government must come to the
determination that unitary authorities should not be the poor relation when
allocating the public purse nor should it be expected to implement expensive
legislation without the appropriate funding being awarded.
Status
This
petition was considered completed by the Petitions
Committee at its meeting on 12/02/2019.
The
Committee agreed to close the petition on the basis that there is little
further action that it could take at this stage, in light of the fact that the
Welsh Government’s Final Budget for 2019/20 was agreed by the Assembly on 15
January 2019 and having been scrutinised by the Finance Committee and other
subject committees.
Full
details of the consideration of this petitions by the committee and related
documents can be seen on the Meetings tab above.
It was
first considered by the Petitions Committee on 23/10/2018.
Assembly Constituency and Region
·
Aberavon
·
South Wales West
Further
information
Business type: Petition
Reason considered: Senedd Business;
First published: 11/10/2018