"More consultation is needed over Community Centres!"

11.42.37pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 13th Jun 2005

Cllr. Alan Taylor on the campaign trail with his Ward Colleagues - Tom Bailey and Elwyn Watkins.

Cllr. Alan Taylor, Leader of the Lib Dem Opposition on Rochdale Council has slammed a decision to cut £100,000 off Rochdale's Community Centre budget and is leading calls for a rethink. Cllr. Taylor has called the item in for further scrutiny and will be asking the Cabinet to find the money elsewhere.

"The main reason is a complete lack of consultation..." said Cllr. Taylor. "... Community Centres are a vital resource for Rochdale and the way they are being treated is scandalous. The implications of the decision to save £100,000 are huge for the Community Centres that will be affected. Community Centres such as Spotland, Sparthbottoms and Deeplish Community Centres are quite rightly furious about the cuts. I wouldn't like to think anybody's jobs were at risk as a result of this decision. We owe it to the hundreds of volunteers and people of all ages who use our community centres to revisit this decision. We need to look at the implications in terms of service provision and the effect any cuts will make. I believe that there wasn't even a discussion by the new Labour / Conservative Cabinet about this - it is disgraceful and we will be forcing them to do their job properly."