Public transport

PENSIONERS and disabled people in Worcester who are too immobile to use public transport will see their community transport fees double under city council cuts.

Worcester City announced on Wednesday that it plans to remove its £18,000-a-year subsidy to Worcester Wheels, a charity which provides disabled-friendly minibus transport to more than 2,000 elderly and disabled people across the city.

While the service itself is not under threat, disabled users will now have to pay the full cost of each journey themselves – previously, the city would stump up half the fare.

Service co-ordinator Hedley Burton said: “We are upset, we’re very upset for our clients. Some of the city’s most vulnerable people are being disadvantaged by having that concession taken away.

“These people are elderly, they can’t walk very far and they can’t get from where they live to the bus stop. They don’t have a lot of money – most are just on a pension.”

Mr Burton pointed out the disparity in a system whereby elderly and disabled people who are mobile enough to take the bus can now do so for free – but those who are too immobile to get to a bus stop still have to pay for their transport.

“This is discrimination,” he said. “if these people could get on a bus they would travel for nothing.”

If the cut is confirmed, the cost of a return journey for disabled Worcester residents using Worcester Wheels will now double, from £1.80 to £3.60.

The service users’ sense of unfairness has been increased further with the realisation that residents from outside Worcester who use the service to get home to areas such as Malvern Hills will still pay the reduced rate, as their councils continue to pay the subsidy.

Wheelchair-bound Warndon resident Ann Dermody, aged 57, said she was distressed to hear of the planned cut.

“I use Worcester Wheels twice a week to get into town and it’s absolutely fantastic,” she said. “It’s really important to me, it gives me something to look forward to.

“There’s no way I can get on a bus – I do feel discriminated against. It might not sound like an awful lot of money but when you add it all up it is.”

Brian Hunt, of the Worcestershire Pensioners’ Action Group, said he was “very disappointed” that Worcester Wheels faces cuts.

“From a pensioners’ point of view, that is such an important service,” he said. “But I’m no longer surprised by any cuts the city or county councils make against older people.”

Council job cuts

STAFF representatives at the Guildhall have expressed dismay at the news around 10 per cent of jobs are likely to go next year at the city council.

Worcester City leaders have announced 62 job losses are planned for next year, with a further 22 the year after, as part of its attempts to find major savings and balance its over-stretched budget.

While about 30 of the posts are currently vacant following an 18-month recruitment freeze at the Guildhall, a raft of redundancies are still likely.

Chris Luckham, branch chairman of staff union Unison, said: “Unison will be working with and supporting all members following the announcement.

“Obviously this is a very distressing time for our members given the current economic climate, and the time of year with Christmas being upon us.

“Many of our members have given years of loyal service and shown a commitment to providing quality public services for the citizens of Worcester.

“We will be looking to the council to provide all the support necessary in this very uncertain time for all their employees and hope that continued dialogue now and in the future will keep cuts and reductions to services to a minimum.”

Announcing the cuts on Wednesday night, city cabinet member for finance Roger Knight made clear his regret at the large-scale job losses.

“People are going to lose their jobs and we can't take that lightly,” he said.

“It's very sad we've now got to a situation where redundancies are necessary.”

Arts workshop

A POPULAR city centre arts workshop faces a battle for survival after the city council announced it plans to cut its funding next year.

The Worcester Arts Workshop on Sansome Walk will lose a major part of its funding if Worcester City Council goes ahead with proposals to withdraw its £20,000-a-year-plus subsidy in April.

The workshop has been a staple of Worcester for almost 35 years, providing facilities for art and drama groups and schools and arranging community arts events all around the city.

“It’s a very concerning situation for us,” said arts workshop manager John Denton.

“Undoubtedly this is a significant part of our funding make-up, and if it was to go then it would be a serious threat to our future, there’s no doubt about that.

“We receive about 30 per cent of our funding from the city council. I will be meeting with our directors next week to discuss the implications of this, and hopefully we’ll have a clearer idea of where we stand after that.

“I obviously think it would be a huge loss if the worst happened – it would not be easy to get an organisation like this in Worcester back once it had gone, particularly in the current climate.”

City council leader Simon Geraghty said the decision to cut the arts workshop’s funding had been a “strategic” one.

“This probably will have serious implications for them,” he admitted. “But we had to assess all the arts grants we give out in the current situation.

“We considered making 15 per cent cuts to every arts budget, but in the end we felt that would undermine all these organisations. So instead we had to make a strategic decision.”

Worcester Live, the arts body which runs the Swan Theatre and Huntingdon Hall, has not had its grant reduced.

Community centre

A COMMUNITY centre in Worcester says it will struggle to maintain its current high standards if city council cuts go ahead as planned.

The Lyppard Grange Community Centre in Warndon will lose its £20,000-a-year maintenance grant from Worcester City Council under the cut-backs announced this week.

It is the only community centre to be hit by a specific funding cut, although all nine centres around the city will be affected by a decision to reduce service levels across the board to save the Guildhall a further £18,000-a-year. Marc Bayliss, a local councillor and until recently a board member at the community centre, said the grant was vital to keep the centre in a decent state of repair.

“It does feel like we've been picked on,” he said. “It seems a bit unfair that Lyppard Grange should bear the brunt of this on its own.

“We are a very successful centre, and the number of people that use it are unbelievable.”

The city council says the centre will have to either “raise funds... or reduce spend on maintaining the building” if the cuts are approved.

But Coun Bayliss said neither was a realistic long-term option. “We made a surplus of about £5,000 last year,” he said. “This cut is four times that level – we're just a small charity, there's no way we can sustain that.

“We already fund the staff and the activities, and the parish council in Warndon already gives Lyppard Grange about £30,000-a-year, so the community is already playing its part.”

City council leader Simon Geraghty said Lyppard Grange had been chosen because it is in “a relatively affluent area” and so may be better able to sustain the cut.

“We can't sustain every single grant,” he said. “They are a very well-run organisation up there and what we're saying is can they take on the liability for running the centre.”

Tourism

TOURISM in Worcester is likely to take a major blow with the removal of two major city council grants to key organisations.

Guildhall bosses will save £180,000-a-year by stopping funding to city tourism body VisitWorcester - which organises events such as the Victorian Fayre and runs tourist information services - when the present funding agreement ends in 2012.

And a further £30,000-a-year is set to be saved by removing Worcester’s contribution to county tourism body Destination Worcestershire.

Its manager Rod Nipper said this would constitute the loss of one-sixth of the body’s entire workforce.

“We will be meeting with VisitWorcester this week to discuss the implications of this,” he said. “Our figures suggest tourism is the third biggest employer in the county, covering about 11,000 jobs – obviously we would urge as much support for it as possible.

“Inevitably these things cost money – our Worcester person is key to producing a lot of the publicity for the city, visitor guides and so on.”

Georgia Smith of Visit Worcester said she “was not prepared to speculate” on how her organisation would cope if its funding is cut in 2012, but stressed the city council is fulfilling all its obligations by funding it up to that point.

The city’s own budget documents make clear the tourism cuts risk a “significant loss of national marketing”, but city leader Simon Geraghty said he at least hoped the three-year run-up to the cut in VisitWorcester’s funding would give managers time to find other sources of income.