Labour Group Condemns Proposed Cuts to Vital Children’s Centres

The Kent Conservative Administration are proposing to cut services and facilities by £5.6 million by closing 38 community buildings including children centres, Gateways, youth centres, adult education and community centres for adults with learning Disabilities across Kent.

Dr Lauren Sullivan, Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Group on Kent County Council said

‘After 13 years of Conservative austerity the Conservative Administration at KCC are trying to portray these proposed cuts as an improvement to services, and this is utterly contemptable and deplorable. As with the last time they cut rounds of services and buildings from some of these services they led to a decrease in provision especially to those communities that needed them the most.

Any self-respecting Council that cares for its residents should be about expanding the offer to these preventative services and not constricting essential and preventative help and support for children, young people, families and those adults with learning disabilities in our diverse communities”

“Preventative services are cheaper in the long run so it is a false economy, the apparent savings they make here will need to be spent on more intensive and expensive help and support in the future. These proposed cuts further demonstrates that the Conservatives have not only lost the moral argument to their destructive and harmful policies but now they have lost fiscal and economic credibility as well.

It is time for a change down at Kent County Council and given the ongoing service cuts it could be questioned if KCC will be in existence for much longer?’

Kent Labour are asking residents to please respond to the consultation on Community Services in Kent.

This consultation runs from 17 January to 26 March and can be found here: https://letstalk.kent.gov.uk/community-services-consultation?next=/admin/sites/editors/home-page/live-preview.