Birmingham City Council: Five dramatic moments from the critical budget meeting, including protests

Birmingham City Council’s critical budget meeting sparked scenes of protest and dire predictions for Brum’s future before a hugely important vote got under way.

On Tuesday, March 5, the full council voted on a budget proposal which included an enormous wave of cuts to  services likely to impact every community across the city.

Youth services, early help services and libraries are all impacted by the cuts and ‘reviews’ as well as bin collections, cultural organisation grants, leisure fees, street lighting and more.

The Labour-run authority has found itself in a dire financial predicament due to Birmingham-specific issues, such as an equal pay fiasco and the disastrous implementation of a new IT and finance system, as well as other factors such as rising demand for services and the impact of years of austerity.

The controlling Labour group’s budget was ultimately passed following a vote of councillors. Here are five of the most important moments from Tuesday’s critical meeting amid deep anxiety over what the budget proposals mean for Birmingham.

1) Council leader points finger at Conservative party

Council leader John Cotton apologised to the people of Birmingham during his speech and said he was committed to putting the Labour-run council back on track.

“The budget before council today is not the budget I entered politics to set,” he said. “It is not a budget I ever envisaged for our city.

“Sadly however, it is a budget that reflects the significant challenges currently facing this council.”

He said progress was being made on Birmingham-specific issues, such as the implementation of the Oracle IT system and the historic equal pay liability, before drawing attention to the “raging crisis” across local government and the fact councils of all political stripes are facing similar issues.

“Responsibility cuts both ways,” he said, addressing opposition Conservative councillors.

2) Protesters

While the critical budget meeting unfolded inside the council chamber, cries of ‘stop the cuts’ rang out as a crowd of protesters gathered outside.

Speaking at the protest, Unison member David Hughes, 71, described libraries as “lifelines” for communities and said they were “good at reacting to local needs”.

He warned the budget proposals could lead to “unintended consequences” and urged the council to fight for “proper funding for Birmingham.”

Green Party member Stephanie Boyle stood outside the council house calling on the authority to “stand up for Birmingham” while fellow member Claire Morris argued the council should reject the budget.

Claire said she was worried it would be the “most vulnerable in the city who will suffer”.

3) Bleak predictions from opposition councillors

The council’s Liberal Democrat group leader Roger Harmer described it as “the most damaging budget impacting our city in living memory.”

“People say the darkest hour is just before dawn,” he continued. “The threat of this budget is we have years of winter to go through, before there is any sign of spring.”

Conservative group leader Robert Alden similarly said residents faced a “double whammy of higher taxes and fewer services.”

“Residents face a future where every time they go to a library they’ll find it closed, every time they visit a youth centre it’ll be shut, they’ll see parks no longer being maintained,” he continued.

4) Letters from city’s young people

During the meeting, Green Party councillor Julien Pritchard read out several heartfelt letters from young people in Birmingham who were deeply concerned about what the budget meant for youth services and centres in the city.

The impact on youth services was also a major concern among the protesters gathered outside the council house on Tuesday evening.

School children and youth workers joined forces to loudly protest outside Birmingham Council House in a bid to protect youth services earlier this year, with Labour councillor Kerry Jenkins saying at the time: “Youth services are absolutely vital to young people in our city.

“Every young person should have access to youth services and to lose them in this city at the time would be an absolute travesty and disaster.”

5) Culture ‘more important that lines in a budget’

Liberal Democrat councillor Deborah Harries argued the city’s cultural scene was more valuable than ‘lines in a budget’ and described it as the soul of the city.

“It’s why so many people come to live and work here,” she said.

She said she shared Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight’s optimism that Birmingham’s cultural scene would survive despite the council’s challenges. But it would not be due to any help from this city council,” she said.

She acknowledged many councils were in dire straits before adding: “But to not focus on the unique failures in Birmingham that have embarrassed this city is insulting to residents.”