COUNCIL leader Royston Smith says that the Unions haven’t come up with an alternative budget for him.

Well let me ask him just what was the list of alternatives he has put forward? Did he give the staff a list of cost cutting options in which pay cuts were one? Perhaps he could tell us what they were. I don’t recall us being asked to choose between maintaining particular services and pay cuts.

The council’s chief executive wrote to all staff saying the saving required over four years has gone up from £65m to £75m.

That’s a bit of disingenuous forward extrapolation using the current level of inflation and some one-off circumstances that he simply assumes will continue over four years. He says that departmental budgets cannot find £75m without pay cuts.

Well come on Mr Neill, show us what savings you have identified as possibilities? Were any put to Mr Smith for consideration?

Of course in applying pressure on staff it is in Mr Smith’s interest to work up that figure as high as possible, to ready himself for the next attack on staff. It will be no surprise when the “unknown 400” jobs cannot actually be saved and that redundancies are required after all.

Can staff actually believe anything you and your chief executive say isn’t being presented in a partial and biased way? I think your employees already know the answer to that.

CITY COUNCIL EMPLOYEE, Name & address supplied.