Last ditch demo against the cuts

The budget will be decided today - or next Tuesday if debate overruns - and will cause hardship across Oxfordshire because of the £10m cut the county council needs to make to balance its books.

Protesters outside County Hall today included parents, school governors and teachers, many of them waving placards.

Schools, earmarked as a priority by the Government, could lose between one and two per cent of their budget for the county to reach its £358m spending limit for 1998/99.

Many members of organisations funded by social services - the sector facing the biggest cuts of £5.7m - were also in the crowd.

Cllr John Tanner, chairman of the Oxfordshire Stop the Cuts campaign, said: "I think people are very angry across all the services in the county. Our aim was to make as much noise as we could in the hope that we would be heard in London."

Among those addressing the crowd was Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, Dr Evan Harris.

He blamed the Labour Government for the cuts. He said: "Money for education should be raised through income tax or council tax - but the Government is not allowing the council to do that. Instead, social services is having to foot the bill."

Chris Bryan, headteacher of St Birinus School in Didcot, and chairman of the Oxfordshire Secondary Heads' Association, said: " We have organised a lobby of primary and secondary schools across the county and we are expecting at least two people from every school.

"The aim is to persuade councillors not to divert funding away from education to other services. The Government have pledged that education is the nation's top priority and we need to see local county councillors comply with that.

"If the cuts in education go ahead we are predicting 150 teacher redundancies and larger class sizes. We have now suffered over five years of cuts to Oxfordshire schools. We are saying enough is enough." Sue Matthew, head of St Ebbe's Primary School, said: "We are determined that money wil be spent on education. We have to believe investment in education will make a great difference. These children have only one chance. Money has been earmarked for education it should not be taken away and spent on something else. We have been a v ery efficient education authority but we do not know where to go next."

Mrs Elizabeth Crawford, mother of three children at St Ebbe's Primary School: "We know these people are allocating scarce resources. But the point is that not allocating them to education is a tremendous betrayal of not only current but future generations as well."

Lesley Williams, headteacher of Chalgrove Primary School, said: "We are refusing to cut any more staff. We have got it as low as we can. I do not know what we will do if there are more cuts.

"I have got completely fed up with saying 'where can we trim a £1,000 here and £1,000 there' . I do not want my staff having a nervous breakdown and I do not want myself having a nervous breakdown." Mr Joe Johnson, headteacher of Sandhills School in Headington, which is facing up to a £40,000 cut in its budget, said: "We cannot even afford to cut the grass in the school playing field. It all makes me extremely angry.

"It is all very simple, the £8.8m that is supposed to be given to education this year should go to education. What do we need libraries for if children cannot read.

"I want all the services supported, but if money is supposed to be given to education and is not, let's fight it."

Mrs Lesley Brind, project worker at Berinsfield Family Centre, which is facing losing a third of its budget, said: "We provide a huge network of support for parents and their families, yet for four years we hav e been campaigning to keep ourselves alive. If they pull the plug out any more we are going to close. We have got to stop the rot."

Linda McDiarmid, co-ordinator of Oxfordshire Mind, said: "We provide centres across the county which give support for people with mental health problems. The more funding we lose the more people are admitted to hospital or commit suicide. Councillors should refuse to pass any of these cuts and if they cannot, they should resign."

Mr Rowen Smith, deputy manager of Cuddesdon Corner Family Centre in Blackbird Leys, Oxford, said: "We have been here for every meeting there has been on the cuts and I think we have succeeded in raising awareness of the important work that goes on in family centres.

"But the proposal is to cut our budget by a third. It is going to have a serious effect on the lives of many people on the estate. This is a service that should be extended not reduced. It is ludicrous."

Mr Larry Sanders, of the Oxfordshire Carers Forum, said: "Social services are being hit the worst by these cuts and the elderly are being hit worst within social services.

"It is our view that every £1 that is lost from social services is having an even more devastating effect than cuts in education."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.