Sir - At a Worcester City Council committee meeting on 19th January, the Conservative Leader of the Council said that he has “an absolute aversion to cutting services unless necessary”.

However, by adhering to the Conservative-led government’s austerity agenda and refusing to lobby for more central government funding, he is helping to ensure that cuts to jobs and services are made.

In the draft budget report that was discussed at the meeting, it was stated ‘that austerity measures are set to continue into future years in line with the government’s objective of achieving a budget surplus’.

This is a declared objective, but surely it is obvious to anyone paying attention that there is also the objective of privatising our services for the benefit of certain companies and individuals.

The cuts are creating the conditions for privatisation and are, despite what the Conservatives say, nothing to do with ‘better value for money to the taxpayer’.

To quote Professor Noam Chomsky: “That's the standard technique of privatisation: defund, make sure things don't work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital.”

Neil Laurenson

Green Party councillor – St. Stephen ward