Long-term solutions including a workplace parking charge and congestion charging are needed to tackle Glasgow’s funding crisis, the city’s Greens have said.
Greens held a ‘day of action’ to highlight the challenges facing the city ahead of Thursday’s budget meeting, when the SNP administration is expected to present proposals to deal with a £60m gap.
It included visiting backcourts and lanes in Cessnock and the Queen’s Park glasshouses, which are listed as an option for closure in budget documents, with union representatives.
READ MORE: Glasgow council set for budget showdown as SNP propose cuts to plug £60m black hole
The Greens aren’t planning to table alternative proposals at Thursday's meeting and have said they won’t “support a budget that cuts statutory services”.
Cllr Jon Molyneux, Greens co-leader, said he hasn’t seen the SNP’s budget plans yet, but his group’s position hasn’t changed.
Councillors have been “told an additional £11.5m was coming through the teacher pay deal, that has been rejected”, he said, but, although any extra money “softens the immediate effect”, cuts “are going to continue year on year unless we have the radical reforms that we need to local finance”.
“We’ve been clear throughout this week that we’re really concerned with the settlement and the effect of Westminster austerity on the Scottish Government, which means we’ve got a settlement that is not enough to meet the needs of the city.
“For us it’s about long-term fixes for these issues and that’s really about the council’s ability to raise more revenue. We’ve had lots of creative ideas for those, but also using some of the powers that the council has, like workplace parking levy and congestion charging which we are not currently using.”
Glasgow Labour leader George Redmond criticised the Greens, and the SNP, for a lack of response to his group’s demands of the Scottish Government, which included protecting health and social care services and education.
“I understand there is a political crisis at Holyrood, but we have a financial crisis in the city of Glasgow,” he said. “The SNP and Greens are sitting in coalition and have handed Glasgow these cuts down. It is simply unsustainable and the Glasgow Labour Group have said enough is enough.”
Earlier on Wednesday, GMB convenor Chris Mitchell and Cllr Dan Hutchison, Greens, met in Clifford Lane and Clifford Place to show the challenges faced by cleansing staff in the city, with rubbish piled up and bins overflowing in lanes and backcourts.
Mr Mitchell said the issues were caused by cuts to services, which had seen the numbers of workers reduced.
He said: “It’s a repetitive job but it’s a job that our members take pride in. They stay in the city, they bring their kids up in the city, they want the city to be clean. We want a cleaner, greener, sustainable future for everybody.
“If we don’t deal with this at this point, this is a crisis we’ve got.”
Sean Baillie, from the GMB, added: “We need to start highlighting that Glasgow needs a new deal. We know the story of how Glasgow’s declined, but who is going to write the future? Let’s start writing it now before it’s too late.”
Cllr Hutchison said: “The more cuts the worse this is going to get. Years ago you would see these lanes would be clear, people could come out, kids could use them to play in. You wouldn’t send your kids out to use them now.
“How much longer can we expect people to live in this? You can’t blame the cleansing they are doing a phenomenal job with the resources they have. We need a new deal for local government.”
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