Arrests and heckling at County Council cuts meeting

Students and local residents protest at county council before a vote on spending cuts that risk 450 jobs. One protestor is arrested for breach of the peace

by Varsity News

This article is 15 years old

Tuesday February 15 2011, 2:19pm

This morning a group of students and local residents blockaded the County Council in protest against the government’s proposed spending cuts to councils of £84m.

Arresting scenes: protestors ejected from Council cuts meetingDevon Buchanan

The activists blockaded the road entrance to the council building using traffic cones, tape and a wall of protestors. This stopped councillors and employees driving into work.

During the meeting, however, one member of the public called for councillors to consider the impact of the cuts on disabled people, followed by another who called for councillors against the cuts to take a stronger stance. Amidst jeering from the public gallery, the Chairman Cllr Linda Oliver ordered the heckler to be ejected.

Prior to the ejection a policeman's hat was thrown from the gallery, after which the meeting was adjourned as the interruptions continued. A protestor was later arrested for breach of the peace.

Kristine James was present at the arrest and said, "It felt as if the voices of the public were being completely ignored. Those councillors are supposed to represent me, but I feel like they have their own agenda."

On the picket line: protestors arrived early for the Council meetingDevon Buchanan

The organisers of the protest, Cambridgeshire Against the Cuts, said in a press release, “As the group stood at the road entrance, several cars beeped their horns in support as they passed.”

Those taking part in the protest included students, youth workers, mental health practitioners, teachers, university workers and parents.

After blockading the entrance, the protestors moved to picket the main entrance to the Shire Hall. Holding banners, they then proceeded to question councillors about their stance on the cuts.

The protest was held today as this is the day when Councillors are due to vote on the package of spending.

One of the protestors, Tom Hanney, a PhD student at Pembroke College, said, “Councillors should resign rather than agree to such unfair and poorly thought-out proposals.

“We are continuing to fight after seeing the devastating attack on university research and teaching, because these public sector cuts are all part of the same regressive agenda.”

The proposed cuts risk 450 redundancies and also threaten local services.

Another protest organised by Unison is due to take place at the council building today.

Support Varsity

Varsity is the independent newspaper for the University of Cambridge, established in its current form in 1947. In order to maintain our editorial independence, our print newspaper and news website receives no funding from the University of Cambridge or its constituent Colleges.

We are therefore almost entirely reliant on advertising for funding and we expect to have a tough few months and years ahead.

In spite of this situation, we are going to look at inventive ways to look at serving our readership with digital content and of course in print too!

Therefore we are asking our readers, if they wish, to make a donation from as little as £1, to help with our running costs. Many thanks, we hope you can help!