Last Wednesday (February 1), I was part of a Scottish Socialist Party group that lobbied and petitioned the budget meeting of North Ayrshire Council.

Over the past few weeks we had carried out street stalls in Saltcoats and Irvine, where we asked members of the local public to sign a petition calling on councillors to set a ‘No Cuts’ budget and to demand back from central government in London and Edinburgh the millions-of-pounds cut from funding that should have come to North Ayrshire. Our petition demanded councillors stand up for local people and communities, rather than punish them by implementing more savage cuts to jobs and services.

In accordance with the Standing Orders of North Ayrshire Council (the rules that govern Council meetings), the SSP asked that we be allowed to submit our petition and address the budget meeting in support of the demands it contained. In response, Council Chief Executive Ms Elma Murray indicated we would be allowed to submit the petition but refused our request to address the meeting. Ms Murray did, however, agree to read out the petition’s demands at the budget meeting.

So, last Wednesday, SSP members lobbied the Council headquarters in Irvine ahead of the budget meeting. Council workers leaving the building for their lunch-break were asked to sign the petition, which many did. Sadly, though, others indicated their belief that if they signed, they would ‘get the sack’. For some reason, a large number of North Ayrshire Council employees were under the impression they are not entitled to hold and express views that might be seen as contradicting the position of elected councillors or Council management. Of course, that is not the case. In a democracy, freedom of expression is an entitlement enshrined in law by the European Convention on Human Rights. The fact so many North Ayrshire Council workers genuinely believed their employer could sack them if they expressed a view opposing further budget cuts to public services suggests there could be an unhealthy atmosphere, bordering on intimidation, within our local Council.

In total, 1,178 local people signed the SSP petition demanding there should be no more cuts in North Ayrshire and that councillors should stop punishing local communities. One party member calculated the petition was signed at a rate of around 200 per hour or roughly once every 20 seconds. That is a truly fantastic public response, which clearly showed the strength of local opinion against cuts being imposed on ordinary people in areas like North Ayrshire but to pay for debts run-up by multi-millionaire bankers in the City of London. Time after time, people signing the petition told their own stories of how the cuts were impacting on their lives: from the removal of desperately-needed support services to benefits being slashed, from jobs lost to pensioners not having enough income to heat their homes.

Residents of North Ayrshire have seen through the Tory rhetoric about us all being ‘in this together’. The people who took the time to express their anger by signing the petition know that the super-wealthy, including the bankers and financial speculators who caused the global collapse of capitalism, are still living the high-life while the very fabric of local communities is crumbling because of punishing cuts imposed by the Tory-Lib Dem Government in London, passed-on by the SNP Government in Edinburgh and implemented by the Labour administration of North Ayrshire Council.

Sadly, at its budget meeting last Wednesday, North Ayrshire Council agreed to further cuts totalling £23million over the next three years. These new cuts are in addition to those that have already caused devastation in local towns: they will mean more slashed services for local people, and potentially more job losses. The budget was passed by councillors from all political parties. In fact, the Leader of the Council, Labour’s David O’Neill, went as far as thanking all councillors, even those that are supposed to be in opposition - SNP, Tory and Lib Dem – for their co-operation in the budget-setting process.

Some of those councillors told the SSP they had no option but to pass the budget and agree to implement further cuts: they said they would be sent to jail if they didn’t, and they were not prepared for that to happen. So, let’s get one thing straight – the Scottish Socialist Party’s candidates for the North Ayrshire Council Election on May 3rd – including me – are prepared to go to jail, if that is what it takes to protect local jobs and services, and defend local communities from the devastating consequences of massive funding cuts.

The legal obligation placed on councillors is to set and pass a ‘balanced budget’. Those of us in the SSP argue that such a budget could have been achieved in North Ayrshire without the need for any cuts. Our position is that councillors should have set the budget to meet the assessed needs of the people. Then, instead of imposing crushing cuts to bring expenditure down to a level determined by central government in London and Edinburgh – a level that fails to meet the needs of local communities – councillors should have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with their constituents to demand the return of millions-of-pounds already withheld from North Ayrshire by the Tory-Lib Dem UK Government and the SNP Scottish Government. Had North Ayrshire’s existing councillors had the interests of the people at heart, they would have been prepared to fight for them. Instead, they meekly accepted local communities will be further punished in order to fund the bankers’ bail-out. Labour, SNP, Tory and Liberal Democrat councillors decided they would rather continue to claim their expenses, paid by the people of North Ayrshire, than fight for local communities.

When the SSP petition was presented to last Wednesday’s meeting of North Ayrshire Council, the Chief Executive, as agreed, read out the demands to which 1,178 local people had signed their names. Not one councillor said a word. Not one councillor was moved to comment. Not one councillor was even prepared to defend their own position. Of course, their ‘silent treatment’ was supposed to be a sleight to the Scottish Socialist Party, but what it actually showed was contempt for the people of North Ayrshire who signed the petition to express their anger at the cuts being imposed on them and their families.

Last Wednesday North Ayrshire councillors ignored the voice of local people. On May 3rd, at the Council Election, that voice cannot be ignored, and the people should take the opportunity to pay-back the treachery of councillors who would rather impose devastating cuts on local communities than fight for their constituents.