37p or 30 pieces of silver? (The cutting of services in RBWM)

The rush of a hard line Council leadership, in leafy Berkshire, to reduce staff pay, delete jobs or place them in the increasingly unregulated private sector, is reaching fever pitch.

Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead staff have been told that there will be no wage increases for all but some of the lowest paid. Many people, who are already earning much less than the National average, wil get absolutely nothing. The reality of this is that in real terms, wages will drop and the living standards of the people who work and provide essential services for us, local residents, will also continue to drop.

All this, so the average Council Tax (band D) payment can go down by 37p per week. None of us like paying tax but I doubt if these ‘real terms’ pay cuts are the best way to provide essential services like home care for the elderly. Many of us would prefer to pay the 37p and have good services, provided by quality staff.

2 weeks ago RBWM staff found out about 31 more council job deletions by chancing upon a lengthy press release on the council’s website! Clearly the Council Leadership’s strong points are not communications, good manners nor team building. The staff should have been the first to know. Far from improving public services, these cuts will place an additional burden on existing hard working staff, who are already trying to absorb extra workloads resulting from previous cuts. There comes a point when cuts actually mean reduced or inferior services. Is that what local residents really want? No, we don’t!

Lastly, local businesses will also continue to suffer as the 1500 RBWM employees tighten their belts even further. Lower wages for such a large group of local residents will  mean that there is less money to spend in local shops and businesses, destroying the local economy still further.