Lib Dem cabinet signs off on £6.5m of Sheffield public service cuts

Paul Scriven, Leader of the Council£6.5m of cuts to local services were approved today by Sheffield City Council's Liberal Democrat cabinet.

Paul Scriven, leader of the council, said "We haven't taken this exercise with a sense of glee. It's something we have been left to do because of the mess this country has been left in.

"I will be honest with the people of Sheffield. This will not be easy and there will be service reductions."

Mr Scriven also accused Labour party members of "abdicating their responsibility" with regard to the debt they had left for the country.

Over half of the proposed cuts will come from Education and Children and Young People's Services. The Connexions service, which offers information and advice to 13-19 year olds will see their budget reduced by £1.2m, about a fifth of their previous total.

Councillor Colin Ross, member for Children and Young People's Services, said "We have been as careful as we possibly can to protect the future of the young people of our city."

David Blunkett, former Education Secretary and Labour MP for Hillsborough and Brightside, last week described the proposed cuts as "appalling".

Councillor Simon Clement Jones, cabinet member for finance, said "I don't think this is a good day for Sheffield. A Labour government spent more money than it had and now it's time to pay the bill.

"One positive is that the Liberal Democrats are in charge of the city and we are well used to cleaning up after Labour's mess."

The cabinet unanimously approved the interim budget report in a meeting which lasted a little over 20 minutes. There were no questions from the public.

A more robust discussion of the cuts is expected when the report is voted on by the full council, where the Liberal Democrats do not have a majority, on Wednesday. Full details of the cuts proposed to be made over the next year can be found here.

Video: "Nick Clegg is not welcome in Sheffield" - City responds to emergency budget

Hundreds gathered outside Sheffield Town Hall this afternoon to protest against the public sector cuts outlined in the coalition government's first budget.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh_QIGPFYT0]

Doug Patterson of Unite recieved the warmest welcome of the day, canonised for his ongoing battle to reverse the governments decision to withdraw their £80m loan to Sheffield Forgemasters.

Sheffield Labour Party Chair Paul Wood recieved a frostier reception, and was heckled by activists in the crowd for New Labour's centrism. A message from Labour MP for Sheffield South East Clive Betts was read out to a murmur of boos, although Central MP Paul Blomfield's message was better recieved.

Constant throughout the speeches was a sense of betrayal. A feeling that Nick Clegg, once the golden boy of Sheffield, has sold the north down the river, to the extent that Patterson declared him persona-non-grata in the Steel City. A further demonstration outside his Eccleshall constituency home has been mooted, but as I understand it it's pretty hard to catch him in these days.

Lib Dem council leader Paul Scriven, who has been on telly an awful lot this weekend loyally defending the coalition's actions, did not attend the protest.

In other news, fresh faced education minister Michael Gove will be opening a new building near the Peace Gardens on Thursday afternoon at 1pm. I'd be surprised if he didn't recieve a warm, Sheffield welcome.

Coalition axes £105m of Sheffield job creation spending

Of the £2bn in cancelled spending commitments announced by coalition Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander today, around £105m of it seems to come directly from job creation projects in Sheffield. £80m loan promised to Forgemasters has been axed
An £80m loan to Sheffield Forgemasters, promised by Labour just prior to the election, has been axed, as well as a £13m investment in Yorkshire Forward/OutoKumpu's project to redevelop a Sheffield steel factory into an industrial park. The loan to Forgemasters was expected to create 180 jobs.

The government's £12m commitment to Sheffield's New Retail Quarter, which has been on hold since developers Hammerson could not commit enough funds to complete compulsory purchase orders, has also been suspended.

A huge chunk of Sheffield City Centre has remained essentially derelict for the last three years while development of the new shopping centre has been on hold. Most of the commercial buildings between Devonshire Green and The Moor are vacant, and demolition of the former Fire service headquarters has just begun. It seems likely that this large area of the centre is to remain a ghost town for the forseeable future.

Nick Clegg has yet to comment on the cuts, but considering his Hallam seat is one of the wealthiest in the North, and has been shared between Tory and Lib Dem candidates since time immemorial, I shouldn't imagine he's that worried.

Paul Scriven on the other hand, who lost his challenge for Sheffield Central by a few hundred votes is in a much more awkward position. Unfortunately he appears to be on holiday in Wales, and has yet to comment.

UPDATE - 1620 - 17/6/10

According to Labour party worker Rob Newman, "David Blunkett has called Clegg to try and get him to reverse Forgemasters decision. No-one answered in his office. No reply on his mobile" (posted on Twitter)

Police called to Sheffield Hallam polling station

St JohnRiot police have been been called to a polling station in Nick Clegg's constituency of Sheffield Hallam tonight, after angry students refused to let ballot boxes out of the building.

Hundreds of students were turned away as polls closed at 10pm, because the station, at St John's Church, Ranmoor was unable to cope with demand.

According to the University of Sheffield's outgoing finance officer, Martin Bailey, police "forcibly removed the ballot boxes" shortly before 11pm.

Voters queuing outside St JohnJohn Mothersole, returning officer for the Sheffield Hallam constituency, said: "We got this wrong and I would like to apologise.
 
“We were faced with a difficult situation with the numbers of people, and a large amount of students turning up to vote without polling cards. This made the administration process of ensuring the correct person was given a ballot paper much longer.
 
“The only remedy, which we could not take, was to extend the voting times.”

Shirley Williams: Clegg isn't holding the country to ransom, he's holding Cameron to ransom.

Baroness Williams meets a balloon seller on FargateUPDATE 4/5/10- Thought it was worth adding this in the light of Nick Clegg's comments on GMTV this morning. My first question to Baroness Williams was along the lines of "Can you imagine a situation where the Liberal Democrats would enter into a coalition with another party without PR on the table, specifically."

Her one word answer was "No".

Former Liberal Democrat leader Shirley Williams admitted that Nick Clegg could hold the Conservatives to ransom over electoral reform today, during a visit to Sheffield.

Last week David Cameron accused Mr Clegg of trying to "hold the country to ransom" after insisting that reform be a pre-condition for offering support to any party in a hung parliament.

Baroness Williams, 79, said: "It's not the country. The country's completely lost faith in the first-past-the-post system. They did some time ago.

"It's absurd to think that the country is devoted to first-past-the-post when they clearly aren't. I would say if anyone's been held to ransom, it's Mr Cameron."

[caption id="attachment_92" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="\"Vote for him!\""][/caption]Baroness Williams was in Sheffield in support of the Lib Dem candidate for Sheffield Central, Paul Scriven. She met and spoke with voters on Fargate, along with Mr Scriven, Cllr Shaffaq Mohammed and former Sheffield Hallam MP Richard Allen.

With three days to go before the polls open, Mr Scriven said he was pleased with the swell of support for his party, but was wary of coming across as overconfident.
"We never take a vote for granted. The really pleasing thing is that there's clearly a shift to us from the people who have never voted before, people who have voted Labour before and particularly from young people.

"I think it's going to be an extremely close fight, and I think we've got a really good chance of winning."

Baroness Williams was one of the founder members of the Social Democratic Party, which merged with the Liberal Party in 1998 to form the Liberal Democrats. In 2007 she accepted a government position as Gordon Brown's Advisor on Nuclear Proliferation, though she remains a member of the Liberal Democrats. She has appeared on the BBC's Question Time programme more times than any other commentator.

Richard Allen was Nick Clegg's predecessor as Liberal Democrat MP for Sheffield Hallam. He stepped down in 2005, and now works as a lobbyist for Facebook, where he works to push the company's agenda on internet privacy in Europe.

Sheffield protest against the Digital Economy Bill