Oaklands swimming pool plan led to dissent (From Daily Echo)

Oaklands swimming pool plan led to dissent

12:50pm Wednesday 13th February 2013 in Politics

IT was the closure of Oakland’s Swimming pool that led to the first cracks within the Labour party. Angry at the plans, Coxford councillors Don Thomas and Keith Morrell formed their own party Labour Councillors Against Cuts.

Their alternative budget saves all jobs and keeps all services running by using reserves and borrowing to plug the £16.5m black hole from the Government.

By doing this they hope to buy time to launch a national campaign with other councils and trade unions to end the austerity. Cllr Morrell said: “This is no silver bullet and we are not talking about maxing out on the credit card.

“We are simply talking about using existing powers on borrowing in order to see us gain a period of time to mount a campaign.

“We believe what we are witnessing is the dis-mantling of local services and the council needs to draw a line and say ‘We’re not prepared to this’.”