Explosive FOI lays bare consequences of Tory decision to remove Council Tax support for some Northum

In the run up to the local elections in 2017, the Tory manifesto pledged ‘A county that works for everyone’. A recently answered FOI has blown that pledge out of the water. At the meeting of the full council in January Tory councillors voted in favour of slashing council tax support for our counties most vulnerable people. Their callous actions were allowed by the coalition of the silent when Bedlington independent and Liberal Democrat councillors failed to join a Labour led rebellion to halt the move. Now in an explosive FOI released by the council the level of cuts to the county’s most vulnerable and the unfair nature of balancing the county’s books is laid bare. Whilst the leader of the councils own ward in Ponteland sees a mere 21 people hit by the cut, across Ashington and Blyth almost 6,000 people are affected. All based on an anonymous survey that those who will be hit will never have seen. In Bedlington where the independents sat on their hands in the vote 1,113 residents are affected, taking £115,752 out of the local economy per year. Women are disproportionately affected and in Bedlington alone as the three male councillors refused to block the measure 573 women are hit. In Prudhoe where the two Tories voted for the supports removal, more than 500 residents are affected with 241 families with children hit. Councillor Susan Dungworth said; “The Tories promised to build a county that worked for everyone but their actions show a very different story. Their desire to balance their own financial mismanagement on the backs of the poor and the vulnerable shows their true colours. Not only will this callous move disproportionately hurt low paid women and the disabled it will hammer high streets already under strain. Taking more than a million pounds from the pockets of the county’s poorest residents will directly hit the local economy. High streets like Bedlington simply cannot afford to see tens of thousands of pounds lost from the pockets of local people.”