BADACA Bulletin – 03/08/12
By admin | August 3, 2012 | Categories: Weekly Bulletin
BRISTOL & DISTRICT ANTI-CUTS ALLIANCE BULLETIN – 3rd August 2012
Bristol’s Care Crisis
Bristol City Council is determined to get care for the elderly and vulnerable on the cheap. In the last year the remaining council-run home care service has been privatised and grants to voluntary groups running services like lunch clubs and day centres have been slashed.
Now Bristol City Council has agreed plans to close 8 of its care homes – leaving 200 residents to find new homes. Seven council-run day centres will close. Services will be privatised. This will leave the elderly and vulnerable users of these services paying more for a sub-standard service while the council saves £4 million. 130 experienced, motivated care workers will lose their jobs. See more here. Webcast of last week’s council meeting here.
Care home residents, day-centre users, their families and staff in the threatened services need to come together with community groups across the city to stop these closures and privatisation. Following last week’s cabinet decision and the large lobby opposing the closures, BADACA supporters met with some of the trades unions involved to discuss how to build such a campaign. We set ourselves the goal of holding an even larger, even more vocal lobby of the full council meeting on Tuesday September 18th. Details below; Facebook here. To discuss how we can spread word about the lobby as widely as possible there will be another meeting on Thursday 9thAugust at 3pm in the Watershed Cafe/Bar. All welcome. If you can’t get to that meeting but want to get involved pleaseemail admin@bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk.Look for more details of this campaign next week.
Please help us to distribute the new edition of BADACA’s NHS pamphlet as widely as possible. It’s available online here. You can get printed copies by emailing admin@bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk.
More details will be available soon about the TUC’s‘A Future That Works’ demonstration on Saturday October 20th. Over the next few months we all need to do everything possible to make this a huge demonstration against the government’s economic policy – Put the date in your diary now and watch out for more details as they become available. Facebook here. Information on TUC website here.
The National Union of Students is also organising a national demonstration against fees, cuts and privatisation on November 21st. Full details soon. Current information is on Facebook here.
Please try to get involved in as many of the activities below as possible and pass the information on to others who may be interested
If you want more information about anything below, email admin@bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk
More information on BADACA and events can be found at our website www.bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk and via the link to Facebook from there
Twitter – http://twitter.com/BrisNoCuts.
If you have events you would like included in a future bulletin please email details to admin@bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk. Our aim is to send out a bulletin every Friday. The deadline for inclusion of events is 5pm on Thursday.
Defend Council-Run Care Homes & Day Centres – Thursday 9th August
Come along to the Watershed Cafe/Bar at 3pm to discuss building the campaign to defend council-run care homes and day centres. All welcome. If you want to get involved but can’t get to this meeting please email admin@bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk
BADACA Steering Committee Meeting – Monday 13th August
Papers will be sent out to affiliated organisations and other members of the steering committee soon. For more information email admin@bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk
Lobby of Bristol City Council Meeting – Tuesday 18th September
Venue: Council House, College Green, Bristol BS1 5TR
Time: 5.00pm
Map: Here
Details: Here
Come to the council meeting and tell councillors what the people of Bristol think of their plans to cut services for the elderly and vulnerable.
BADACA Admin
BADACA links…
Website: http://www.bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BristolAntiCuts
Twitter: http://twitter.com/BrisNoCuts
Forum: http://www.bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk/wordpress/bbpress/
Affiliate: http://www.bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk/affiliate-to-us/