Because I am a bad Levenshulmian I couldn't make the meeting on Friday to discuss the future of the Baths and Library. Thankfully, I have ears everywhere and, in this case, the lovely Susan Mcpherson took some notes and has kindly provided me with the following report:
105 people braced the cold to attend the meeting. Save Levy Baths briefly summed up the history of the campaign and Cllr Julie Reid (Gorton South) summed up her opposition to the culling of the baths. What followed was a wide-ranging and often emotional discussion not just about the baths, but also about the devastation caused by these cuts. Residents called on the Labour Council to not put through the budget. It was also proposed that the campaign to save the baths links in fully with other groups, via the central Manchester Coalition Against the cuts, and call a Manchester Demo with one message: Councillors – vote against the budget. Let the Tories/Lib Dems do their own dirty work. This was welcomed and agreed.
The campaign will thus attend the MCAC meeting next Tuesday (22cnd). Save Withington Baths also attended the meeting and asked for support from Levenshulme. Sir Gerald Kaufman MP offered his support to the campaign and also said that anti-cuts groups are an important part of resistance. Cllrs were also asked to not vote for the budget should these cuts go through. Cllr Reid (Gorton South) and Cllr Ahmed (Levenshulme) agreed. Lib Dem Cllr Hennigan will vote against the budget as is usual for the opposition; they will propose their own round of cuts.
Events agreed:
Fliers will be done for next week and 20 people have volunteered thus far to distribute to schools, family, shops, friends, groups.
Matthew Duggan/More Talk are sponsoring a text message service so residents can get event/meetings alerts to their mobile phones. Please sign up for text message "stopthecuts" to 01618505333.
A Facebook group is also available so please join to make sure you keep up to date on the information available.
One other important thing to note: the report above, the meeting and the activities described are being organised jointly by Levenshulme Community Association and the Save the Baths group, who have jointly put a great deal of work into organising the action so far.
105 people braced the cold to attend the meeting. Save Levy Baths briefly summed up the history of the campaign and Cllr Julie Reid (Gorton South) summed up her opposition to the culling of the baths. What followed was a wide-ranging and often emotional discussion not just about the baths, but also about the devastation caused by these cuts. Residents called on the Labour Council to not put through the budget. It was also proposed that the campaign to save the baths links in fully with other groups, via the central Manchester Coalition Against the cuts, and call a Manchester Demo with one message: Councillors – vote against the budget. Let the Tories/Lib Dems do their own dirty work. This was welcomed and agreed.
The campaign will thus attend the MCAC meeting next Tuesday (22cnd). Save Withington Baths also attended the meeting and asked for support from Levenshulme. Sir Gerald Kaufman MP offered his support to the campaign and also said that anti-cuts groups are an important part of resistance. Cllrs were also asked to not vote for the budget should these cuts go through. Cllr Reid (Gorton South) and Cllr Ahmed (Levenshulme) agreed. Lib Dem Cllr Hennigan will vote against the budget as is usual for the opposition; they will propose their own round of cuts.
Events agreed:
- Thursday 24th January, 7.00pm-8.00pm at Inspire – Planning meeting. Followed by free soup at the Bluebell.
- Saturday 26th January, march and demo – meet at Tesco at 12.00pm, bring books, banners, noise
- Black Ribbon event: black ribbon will be distributed to folks at the Thursday meeting to cover any services lost or soon to be lost in Levenshulme.
Fliers will be done for next week and 20 people have volunteered thus far to distribute to schools, family, shops, friends, groups.
Matthew Duggan/More Talk are sponsoring a text message service so residents can get event/meetings alerts to their mobile phones. Please sign up for text message "stopthecuts" to 01618505333.
A Facebook group is also available so please join to make sure you keep up to date on the information available.
One other important thing to note: the report above, the meeting and the activities described are being organised jointly by Levenshulme Community Association and the Save the Baths group, who have jointly put a great deal of work into organising the action so far.
3 comments:
The meeting sounds great. Have any posters/flyers been produced? If so can they be downloaded - I'd be happy to flyer my street and put a poster in my window. Thanks.
People do of course focus on what concerns them the most and there seems to be a bias towards the baths here. Cutting the library is equally unacceptable so both should be given equal emphasis, not least because we seem to be the only area loosing both.
The LCA website http://www.levenshulmecommunity.org.uk/ appears to be down @ moment (its saying site under maintenance) and googling produced no results re. finding posters/leaflets on-line - however my partner came across some people giving out leaflets outside the train station yesterday (Monday) evening.
Mike you'll be pleased to hear that they give equal prominence to the library as well as the baths
see link for pic http://yfrog.com/jx5jobj
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