A ‘bankrupt’ council that grew to become the topic of protests over proposed price range cuts has held a ‘Queering Diet’ occasion.
The brainchild of Birmingham metropolis council’s public well being division, the workshop explores the “interplay between the LGBTQ+ group and our meals system”.
Forthcoming classes will cowl “approaches to look after non-binary and gender various people with dementia”, delivered by Newman College by means of an “intersectional lens”, and “different cervical screening for marginalised teams” and “inclusive language in healthcare settings”, led by Birmingham Ladies’s and Youngsters’s Hospital NHS Basis Belief.
The 21-session programme comes as leaders formulate plans to plug a £300 million funding hole.
Gary Sambrook, Conservative MP for Birmingham Northfield, mentioned: “For the reason that council’s chapter was introduced I’ve had numerous conferences with group teams, individuals who depend on council service, and with councillors about the way forward for libraries and youth companies.
Spend cash correctly
“Labour’s chapter will value Birmingham for years to come back. I wish to see cash being spent correctly and directed at these in want – not spending on initiatives which make effectively paid officers really feel higher about themselves.”
Ben Bradley, Conservative MP and chief of Nottinghamshire county council, added: “I’m the primary particular person to acknowledge that native authorities is underneath big stress. As a council chief, I see that, and the problem of balancing the books is a tough one.
“However I completely lose sympathy in a few of these areas the place they’ve gone bankrupt and so they’ve so visibly wasted cash on absolute nonsense. A few of these issues are pet initiatives or wokery and simply designed to make the officers really feel like they’re beautiful individuals.
“It’s actually exhausting to sympathise with their pressures and monetary place after they spend a lot cash on a lot [rubbish].”
Final yr The Telegraph reported on Birmingham’s “meals revolution convention”, throughout which Dr Justin Varney, town’s director of public well being, warned: “Meals is admittedly necessary to all of us … we will’t survive with out consuming”.
Extra lately the division was recruiting for a help officer – wage £25,119 to £31,364 per yr – “to handle well being inequalities in communities of curiosity in Birmingham, together with LGBT+” communities.
Funds cuts protest
On Tuesday protestors marched by means of the centre of town after the council proposed to scale back the £57 million price range allotted to its youngsters and households division. It is usually contemplating chopping the grownup social care price range by £22 million and housing by £6 million.
A senior Conservative councillor on the West Midlands authority, who didn’t wish to be named, mentioned: “Birmingham council is bankrupt with its companies failing essentially the most susceptible within the metropolis, its youngsters and people with extra wants.
“Because of these failings [its] youngsters’s particular academic wants service is now run by a authorities commissioner. And who can pay for this?
“Not simply the kids and households with poor companies, however all of the residents of this metropolis with a ten per cent council tax rise this yr and one other 10 per cent subsequent yr.
“Why ought to they be paying for this nonsense when their bins are recurrently not emptied?”
Elliot Keck, head of campaigns on the TaxPayers’ Alliance mentioned: “Birmingham council have clearly learnt nothing from the stunning harm it has inflicted on its funds.
“A tradition of stunning waste and mismanagement is being paid for by native taxpayers, but bureaucrats within the city corridor are nonetheless comfortable to waste time on the taxpayers’ dime.
“Birmingham wants a whole overhaul of the present tradition and its substitute with one the place delivering high quality public companies at low value is the highest precedence.”
A spokesman for Birmingham Metropolis Council mentioned that its public well being division was “facilitating a spread of webinars for LGBT+ historical past month” however insisted it was a “zero-cost endeavour”.
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