Camarthenshire: Councillors' 'walk of shame'

Lobbying Carmarthenshire council against Plaid Cymru's cuts March 2020 (Click to enlarge)

Mark Evans, Carmarthenshire County Unison branch secretary (personal capacity)

Plaid Cymru councillors voting for the cuts had to walk the 'walk of shame' past us to get into the council meeting.

Carmarthenshire County branch of public sector union Unison, along with Socialist Party and other anti-cuts campaigners, lobbied the Plaid-led council where the budget was being voted on. We called on councillors to make a stand and implement our union branch's no-cuts budget.

Due to a pre-election sweetener from Boris Johnson, Tory cuts passed on by the Welsh Labour government to the council for the next three years were lower than expected - �16.5 million. But these cuts will have a serious impact on jobs, services and communities and come on top of previous cuts.

We had no illusions that Plaid councillors would make a stand because the council's public consultation about the budget was a sham. There was no mention of cuts in the consultation - the words "efficiencies" and "savings" were substituted for 'cuts'. And if the public didn't accept suggested 'efficiencies' or 'savings' they were threatened with a rise in council tax.

Carmarthenshire Unison has stopped council cuts on many occasions. We will continue to make councillors walk the 'walk of shame' until they stand with us or are removed from office.

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