Birmingham City Council has today issued a second S114 notice, altering councillors that the city does not have sufficient funds to pay for the services it must provide to residents. This is due to the failure of the Labour cabinet to act to resolve the council's equal pay liability. As this is a legal duty of the council, the failure to move forward in selecting a new job evaluation scheme has also caused the issuing of an S5 notice, which alters councillors that the council is in breach of its legal duties.
Cllr Robert Alden said "The issuing of a second 114 notice and a section 5 notice has put in black and white the failure of this Labour administration. Two notices for a failure to act highlights the very lack of urgency from the Labour administration, we have raised. Birmingham Labour have overseen a summer of inaction and have failed in their duty to do the jobs the Labour Leader and his cabinet are paid for, namely, to make decisions and protect the Council and residents. As a born and bred Brummie I am angry that our great City is having its assets put at even greater risk, that the Council is being bled dry because of the Labour group being unwilling or unable to do the job.
It is a damning indicator of the dangerously negligent attitude of the Labour administration that they have again needed officers to step in to try and save Birmingham. Officers taking the brave decisions to try and save Birmingham City Council while the Labour cabinet is to chicken to act.
If Cllr John Cotton and his Labour Cabinet aren't willing to do their job and act decisively to save the Council they need to go and go now. Birmingham deserves so much better than this bunch of cowards, who are taking direct advice from the National Labour Party about how to protect the Labour brand, not listening to Council officers about what is best to protect Birmingham."
Cllr Ewan Mackey "Just when you think the Labour leadership of this council cannot drag its reputation any lower, we are faced with officers being forced to take this unprecedented step. At a time when the city needs its leader more than ever, we are left with a man seemingly paralysed by the toxic and dysfunctional relationship within the labour group and the wider labour movement and trade unions.
Labour created this mess and has had 6 years to sort it out. The fact they are still refusing to do so, despite the government, auditors and officers all being forced to intervene, tells you everything you need to know about their priorities. The decimation of council services, loss of the city’s assets and the trashing of our standing in the world, is a price Birmingham Labour are willing for residents of this great city to pay for their own failings. I hope this is not the case, but It increasingly looks like to protect the Labour brand they are deliberately letting the Council crash so they can try and blame others for the decisions that happen to fix Labour's mess. They are a total disgrace"
