Despite what Pickles thinks, the public values council services

Yesterday, the Liverpool Echo launched its manifesto for the general election. It’s a compilation of the key issues that the tens of thousands of readers think are most important.

Top of the list? “More money for local councils”.

“You told us that you want better funding for local councils which have seen hundreds of millions of pounds stripped from their budgets over the last five years” the paper says, “threatening key local services from children’s centres to libraries”.

62% of Merseysiders backed calls for the next government to “increase its grants to councils”.

This is not council spin – this is the voice of real Liverpudlians and Merseysiders speaking out, telling their independent local paper what they want to see action.

They value the services we provide – from libraries to home helps – and they recognise their very future is under threat because of constant attacks from this government.

They can see that council finances are now stretched so thinly that they are translucent.

The man responsible for making it their number one concern is Eric Pickles.

Cameron sacked Michael Gove because he alienated teachers with his constant sniping. Well, Pickles has done exactly the same to local councils, blithely imposing swingeing cuts that threaten every service local councils provide.

The figures speak for themselves. Local authorities have, on average, seen their government funding reduced by a third since Pickles became Communities’ Secretary. Here in Liverpool, we calculate that we will have lost lost 58 per cent of our budget – some £330m – by 2017. This is money gone from frontline services and our local economy.

The voting public is smart enough to know that these cuts were hatched in Whitehall. They are the result of Pickles’ single most-damaging decision, borne of his eagerness to please (or his naiveté), when he caved-in to Treasury pressure back in 2010 and accepted a cuts package that has simply decimated local government.

On top of that, he is responsible for lumping us with the Bedroom Tax (Liverpool is the second worst-affected council) while he recently blocked a major regeneration scheme in the city, overruling the independent planning inspectorate in the process.

So on this April Fool’s Day, we are awarding Pickles a special Freedom of the City. We hope that whatever happens after the election that we are ‘free’ of this bumbling man for good.

Joe Anderson is Labour Mayor of Liverpool