Cuts, more cuts and fairness

22 April 2013

Yet more cuts are being forced on the whole of Warwickshire.  The county council is reducing its grant to various family groups.  There are six such centres in Dorktown and they have been warned that there needs be a 50% saving over the next two years.  These centres are a much valued resource for the county but the Tory lead county council is not interested in that.  It also seems to fly in the face of Cameron's Big Society idea he came up with. 

However, it's not just the Tories making cuts.  Dorktown's Labour run council has decided that the A444 that runs from junction 3 of the M6 and Burton on Trent, is to cleaned up on the stretch from the M6 to the island at Bermuda Industrial Estate.  The cost is going to be £6,000.  OK, but at the same time of spending that money some of the workers who are expected to do the job are facing cuts to their wages.  The reason is a thing called 'single status'.  They are using this as an excuse to reduce the wages of refuse collectors and cleansing operatives (bin men and street cleaners in plain English!), they very people who will have to do the A444 cleanup.  Some of them will losing £200 a month!   

That's a big drop in wages.  Yet the same cut is not being imposed on the executive staff members who are also single.  But hang on - a thought has just come to me ... surely the recent legislation regarding pay for women who do work of the same value as men might also apply to single people who do the same work as married men?  Worth looking at I think.

So photo time ... 

one of Jan I took yesterday for a daughter Lynda.

And today's funny ...

My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming anniversary. She said, ‘I want something shiny that goes from 0 to 150 in about 3 seconds.’ I bought her some bathroom scales.