Rescued but it is no thanks to the Greens

“This is probably just more muckraking against the Greens by those who are hacked off about them joining Ferguson's cabinet, at least I hope so, if its coming from a LibDem the Mayor's attempt to create a cabinet to avoid inter-party bickering in Bristol doesn't seem to be working very well! As I understand it, a small portion of the Adult Learning Money was used to avoid a cut to the Homeless Prevention Fund, but since I am just going by what I've read on other parts of the net I am going to leave it at that. If I am disappointed by all this mudslinging though, just imagine what the population of Bristol must think!”

“The Green amendment was withdrawn after the Lib Dems presented their own amendment identifying a contingency fund from which the money for the homelessness prevention fund could be taken. That this sticking plaster was available to save both services for one year was welcome news, but nobody was proposing it be used to save the homelessness fund until the Green Party put the issue on the agenda. So I think they did do the right thing. I think most "normal Green supporters" would agree that however much we value adult leisure learning, prevention of homelessness is a higher priority for council funding. Now we have a year in which to identify a more secure mechanism for the provision of these services.”

“I'm surprised at the repeated inaccuracies of the 'campaign' around this budget. Leisure learning, a subsidised programme mainly attended in Stoke Bishop, and not at all the same service as Adult Education (despite the LibDems' and many others' confusion) was proposed as a budget that had less of a social case than preventing homelessness. It's interesting how few campaigners were explicit that they prefer to see homelessness rise in the city through a cut to the Preventing homelessness budget. The effect of this is to increase suffering and many other extra expenses for the council. Of course we all support life long learning; I certainly do. But to subsidise hobby courses when allowing homelessness to increase during the recession is careless in the extreme.
The main target of the supporters of lifelong learning and leisure eduction should be central government cuts, of course. These have been imposed with little alternative other than Whitehall control of Bristol
At least we now have a year to review the best way to promote general interest courses in the city, many of which have no subsidy and take place in community locations.”

“I'm not at all certain that there was any legitimate mandate for the Green Amendment proposal to cut Adult Learning and, to the best of my knowledge, not ever any prior consultation. Perhaps they simply acted of their own volition?

It is a great shame the Amendment was ever tabled, especially with the forthcoming elections imminent. Not least because it is a long-established Green position, enshrined in Core Principles, that Learning is for Life and to be protected. For that reason, it is hardly likely to have anywhere near majority support amongst Greens if tested and most would consider it has been a very damaging error of judgement.

For the sake of clarity, the day was saved for Adult Learning by a Contingency Fund that the Green Amendment protagonists, apparently, didn't seem to know existed. Would they have risked such foolish proposals had they known about the Fund? I'd guess not. Yet Council Accounts are no secret and open to scrutiny at any time. Not exactly rocket science. Thus it seems more a case of a few having gone off half-cocked and ending up looking somewhat foolish as the reality of the home goal kicked in.

The Green Amendment proposal was a bit of an amateur, knee-jerk reaction anyway to the Rule that no fund could be saved cuts without counter cuts of an equal amount to another fund; almost baited for them one might also conjecture. So the bait was taken, naively, and the result is plain for all to see.

Despite this glaring error of judgement, there has been no public acknowledgement that there was any error at all and the Green line is still that they did the right thing.

One thing is certain though, this incident has done massive damage amongst normal Green supporters and we haven't begun to see the full extent of it.

Tess's absurd threat that she would, "come for this service (Adult Learning) next year", is probably very real. However, is it wise?

There is a whole year to mount resistance and enough people who support Adult Learning to make that a force to be reckoned with for anyone targeting such a valued resource. Well, Tess has thrown down the gauntlet. Now let's see how far she gets.

The Green future in the Ashley Ward looks bleak as this row-in-the-making gathers momentum.”

“I'm sure all these community classes are very valuable, but should they really be subsidized by the council to the tune of £200 per head at a time when cuts are being made in so many other areas?

Ann Thomas' letter makes no mention of the homelessness prevention fund, which the Green amendment sought to restore. I think most people would agree that they got their priorities correct, and as a result of this intervention, the fund was saved.

I think the warning to the leisure learning community is a timely one. The services they value so highly are bound to come under pressure as the council's budget is cut further in the next few years. I think that they would be wise to seek other ways of managing the provision of classes for which there is such a clear demand.”