I’M a big fan of local government and public services in general. 


I used to work for St Helens Council and know that a lot of very committed people work hard to deliver quality services.


Their numbers have dramatically reduced over the last few years as a result of the short sighted and draconian cuts in funding from central government. Services have been affected by those cuts.


Despite this, the council remains a well managed authority in the eyes of its auditor.


But the number of issues around public services at the moment, be it NHS and Social Care under funding, green belt housing, industrial strategies, Florida Farm development and many, many more, have masked what is about to happen.


The Budget Report identifies a huge list of services up for review...a euphemism I am sure for cessation, or serious reduction in those services, or charging for them.


We are likely to see parks unstaffed, grounds maintenance reduced, youth service cut even further, waste collection and recycling services badly affected, car parking charges changed... there is a long list of truly local services which will be affected.


I cannot see what opportunities there have been for meaningful consultation (The online budget simulator the council invites us to use cannot help the user really assess implications of changes in spending levels and the user cannot change council tax levels in the calculation).


The council is hamstrung in terms of the increases in council tax it is allowed to introduce...but it could ask its residents if they would allow a further increase in council tax by a referendum (Tory controlled Surrey County Council is doing precisely that ).


We have not been given the opportunity to tell the council if we want our longstanding and precious services to disappear forever.

Make no mistake about it, once gone most of these local services will never return.


Pete Yates, 
West Park