Leaders discuss impact of cuts

BRISTOL mayor George Ferguson joined political and faith leaders from some of the country's biggest cities to discuss the impact of local government spending cuts.

The summit was led by Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson and the Bishop of Liverpool, the Right Reverend James Jones.

As well as Bristol, the cities of Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield all sent representatives to the event.

During the summit at the BT Convention Centre on Friday, the representatives agreed to write to ask the Government to urgently rethink its policy and to apply cuts more fairly across the country.

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Some critics have said the event was "unhelpful political point scoring", as all the city leaders, apart from Mr Ferguson, are Labour politicians.

The Dean of Bristol, the Very Reverend David Hoyle, was due to attend with Mr Ferguson but could not make it due to Friday's snow.

Mr Ferguson, pictured, told The Post the summit had been useful and that he would shortly be visiting Birmingham to learn about how the city was coping with cuts.

"It was great to meet with leaders from the other core cities," he said.

"I am very much the new boy on the block.

"I will be going to Birmingham as I think it is very important that we learn from each other.

"The other leaders recognise it is important to have me as an independent with them, as it means it is less politically one-sided as a lobbying group.

"I put my name to the letter to the Government but it was redrafted to come across as less of a whinge."