Lobby Labour council for a budget based on need not cuts
by Enfield Socialist Party members
Enfield has the highest youth knife crime in London. Last summer, a community meeting identified the need for places where young people can hang out safely. But Enfield Labour council is cutting not increasing them.
Under the Tories, Enfield Labour council closed most of its youth services, instead of building a campaign to fight for the money to fund them. Privatising leisure centres takes these important facilities further out of the reach of young people.
to services.
Photo: Sarah Sachs Eldridge
Scandalously, Enfield has 6,401 families on the social housing waiting list, while private homes are being built on public land. We need council homes!
Now, with a Labour government in place, instead of demanding the resources to reinstate those much-needed services, they are doubling down – library cuts of £630,000, and a proposal to close eight libraries.
The money is there
When they say there is no money, it is not true! Enfield Council has over £100 million in reserves.
While Britain’s billionaires continue to get £35 million richer every day, Keir Starmer’s Labour government repeats the ‘need’ for “ruthless” cuts.
Enfield Labour council is proposing fewer street-cleaning services. The ‘savings’ are peanuts, while the potential social costs are huge!
The council was planning to stop paying caretakers to lock park gates each night. But they’ve now backed down, showing our pressure on them works.
The argument that cuts are necessary has been disproved by experience. Enfield has made enormous cuts, and now is in financial crisis.
Arms trade
Anti-war campaigners correctly call out any links between our council and the arms trade. Councils should be funded by central government to provide all the public services we need, rather than getting into deals with big business, including war profiteers.
Workers and young people in Enfield need to organise to fight for funding not cuts. Enfield Trades Union Council has debated and agreed on a campaign for a needs budget. Join the lobby of the council’s budget-setting meeting.
15 years of austerity has brought untold suffering. We need to bring it to an end.
That means getting organised to fight every attack on our services, and every attempt to make the working class pay more.
Lobby Enfield Labour council
- Meet at civic centre on Silver Street, Thursday 27 February, 6pm