MORE than 100 people protested outside Wallasey town hall last night, Tuesday, against budget proposals put forward by Wirral Council’s ruling cabinet.

Members of Wirral Unison and Unite made their thoughts known ahead of the meeting, which saw Labour’s budget resolution passed unanimously.

The budget includes a number of measures to increase growth, with its principal aim to reduce overall spending by £27.5m.

The package includes £17.3m of savings generated by ‘completely remodelling’ the way the authority operates.

Back-office services will be merged with neighbouring authority Cheshire West and Chester Council – cutting costs by more than £7m and resulting in around 50 redundancies at management level.

Terms and conditions governing severance packages are also set to change – one of the things trade unionists protested about.

Ahead of the meeting, Phil Goodwin, branch secretary of Wirral Unison – which represents 2,700 council workers – said the group wanted to keep severance payments to enable workers to be able to ‘face redundancy with dignity’.

He said: “We want it to be an attractive package to make voluntary redundancy still an option.
 

“We are still ready to work with the council and the council leadership.

“We will be pragmatic but tough.”

Labour’s budget resolution will now go forward to full council on Monday, December 16, for final approval.