Birmingham, Britain’s second-largest city, to dim lights and cut sanitation services due to bankruptcy — as childhood poverty nears 50 per cent

Michelle Rimmer in Birmingham:

*Once nicknamed “the workshop of the world” Birmingham was an industrial powerhouse in the 18th and 19th centuries. It’s where William Murdoch invented the first gas-lantern, a technology later used to light streets across the world.*

*But today the UK’s second-largest city can no longer afford to keep its own streets brightly lit.*

*In September the Birmingham City Council issued a 114 notice, effectively declaring it was bankrupt.*

*To claw back $600 million over the next two years, the council has approved a range of unprecedented budget cuts that will see streetlights dimmed and rubbish collected only once a fortnight.*

*Birmingham is one of the youngest cities in Europe, with nearly 40 per cent of its residents under 25 years old, according to both government and university studies. Many in the city feel young people will be the worst affected by the cuts to frontline and preventative services.*

 

*”This is the second-largest city in the sixth-richest country in the world and we have rampant poverty … children are growing up below the poverty line,” Birmingham youth mental health worker Nina Barbosa said.*

*Birmingham’s financial black hole was at least partially self-inflicted. But Birmingham council leader John Cotton claims the city’s debts were compounded by austerity measures brought in by the Cameron government in 2010.*

*On average, people in Birmingham die three years younger than those living 160km away in London, while just under 50 per cent of all children in Birmingham are classed as living in poverty, compared to 32 per cent in the capital.*

*Nick Davies, programme director of British think-tank Institute for Government, says the austerity measures brought in under former prime minister David Cameron have degraded public services across the country.*

*”The public find it very difficult to access general practice health services, adult social care services are rationed, there’s also huge backlogs in the criminal courts and our prisons are full to bursting point.”*

Birmingham City Council finances weren’t good even without the pay claims and the like, because of things like weekly refuge collection. When I moved I was strange that my new council alternates weeks between rubbish and recycling.

Which council has majority at Birmingham?

The same party that left us with insane financial issues before conservatives.

And we are about to witness it happen all over again.