Protestors hijack council meeting

Protestors caused chaos by hijacking the council’s budget meeting at Southampton Civic Hall today and had to be ejected by town sergeants.

Around 200 angry protestors gathered outside under Unite and Unison banners.
Demonstrators crowded inside Civic Hall but were turned away from the council chamber and the public gallery by security staff who told them it was full.

Inside the chamber there were loud boos and jeers from the public gallery as the councillors took their seats. Chants of "cut our pay, lose your seat in May,’ and ‘you should all hang your heads in shame,’ were shouted down at the councillors.

Mayor Carol Cunion attempted to begin the meeting amid shouts from a group of protestors still gathered in the lobby outside and loud bangs on the chamber door.

Councillor Letts suggested that the meeting be adjourned and moved to the Guildhall: "This is the largest public protest we have seen here since the council tax riots, " he said. "We should make sure that all the people here can hear this debate." However he was overruled by Mayor Cunion who said that this was not possible as the venue was already in use.

Councillor Lettes then requested that all councillors be allowed an unlimited amount of time to speak on proposals instead of the mandatory four minutes but the motion was overruled.

Councillor Moulton introduced the budget proposals saying: "This is about the services we provide in Southampton, not a debate about policy made at Westminster. I read a Unison leaflet recently which blamed the banks for the budget cuts but we should not forget that it was Gordon Brown’s spending spree that caused the deficit.

"These are Labour cuts, not Tory cuts."

This was greeted with cries of: ‘get your facts right councillor Moulton.’
Mayor Cunion callled the meeting to order on several occasions and threatened to throw out the public if they continued being disruptive, but after ten minutes she was forced to adjourn the meeting and the protestors were asked to leave.

Unite Representative Peter Watts, the most vocal of the protestors inside the meeting said: "It’s a disgrace that the public are not allowed to have their say. Our council tax pays for the councillors.

"The meeting should have been moved to the guildhall then we could have had a say. We could say we’re willing to take a pay cut but there won’t be any guarantee for our jobs in the future even if we do.

"The councillors are so smug, we just can’t sit there and take it. We see depravation around this city all the time.

"We’ll be holding a public ballot on this and if the union ballots in favour we’ll definitely be calling for industrial action."

Simon Cotton, shop Steward for Unite was one of a group of Unite demonstrators from the council’s Waste and Recycling team who were barrerd from entering the civic centre.

He said: "We’re sick and tired of being treated like scum, we’ve had enough. Morale amongst workers is really low and when that happens the quality of service suffers. We’ve had a pay freeze for the past four years and now they want us to take a pay cut. This is the 21st century not 1918 it’s time for a change."