20/11/2011 The Politics Show West

In the West, the political first as a judge over-rules councillors,

telling them they'll be breaking equalities legilslation if they

close libraries in Somerset and Gloucestershire. As the campaigners

celebrate, the councillors are left counting the costs. All that coming

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2342 seconds

Good afternoon and welcome to the part of the programme just for us

here in the beautiful West Country. This week, we had a political first,

but it wasn't good news for our elected councillors. They lost a

high court battle over closing the doors on libraries in Somerset and

Gloucestershire, leaving campaigners celebrating.

Plus, the council cuts to youth services leaving charities to pick

up the tab to save vital services. And the new IT system that farmers

say is risking the health of livestock because of delays to

It's the essence of democracy. We choose who is in charge, they make

the decisions and, if we disapprove, we can kick them out. But this week

saw elected politicians over-ruled by an unelected judge. In a

significant development, the High Court threw out major cuts which

could have seen libraries closing in Gloucestershire and Somerset.

Here's Paul Barltrop. Celebrations in Somerset.

Campaigners who had fought to save Watchet Library toasted the success

of their court battle. Madame! had taken many months. They are

ecstatic. It has been going on for such a long time. Theirs had been

joined to a similar challenge in Gloucestershire. There had been

numerous demonstrations outside council meetings. A firm of lawyers

were hired. Injunctions were issued halting closures. They went to the

High Court on three occasions, culminating in this week's decisive

ruling. They emerged delighted having heard a judge quash the

council's library cuts for failing in their equalities' duties. Their

victory will have implications across the country. It builds all

councils now to look at what the court has said and to examine at

the library cuts they are proposing and make sure they are complying

with their legal duties. I expect a fundamental change in the shape of

the library cuts are being proposed. In fact, the legislation this case

turned on could be used to fight all sorts of cuts.

The Equality Act 2010 was put into law in the final days of the last

Labour government. Much of it only came into force this year. It

consolidated and replaced a whole array of existing legislation such

as Race Relations rules and the Disability Discrimination act, but

also added an extra group who must be given special consideration by

Government - the elderly It is only now that the courts are starting to

interpret what that actually means in practice. For Gloucestershire

County Council, there is great frustration. They thought they had

done their homework. It is something that this organisation

believes in so much. We undertook three equality impact assessments

of this issue, tried to get it right. So we are very disappointed.

I think it is a matter of timing where we went wrong on this.

Conservative administration had planned to take �2 million a year

from their libraries budget. problem is not going to go away. We

still need to save �2 million. It is money we cannot afford to throw

away. We will be working to see if we can make this decision again and

work with those communities to make sure their aspirations are

delivered. Back in Watchet, the reprieved

library was enjoying one of its busiest days. The campaigners will

watch carefully what the council do next. We hope they will not waste

more public money by going to appeal. We are very happy and

placed and will sit down and discuss how to keep libraries open.

We are determined not to let libraries close.

It was last December that this library learnt it was under threat.

Nearly a year on, these controversial cuts in both Somerset

and Gloucestershire have got nowhere and it has cost taxpayers

possibly hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Joining us today is the leader of Somerset County Council

Conservative Councillor Ken Maddock. So what are you going to do now?

is a very long and complex judgement and I am not sure whether

the peace preceding this are made entirely clear that we were

challenged on three grounds. Firstly, were the complying with

the 1964 Act? And the judges' opinion was that we wear. Secondly,

did the consult widely enough? The judgment was that we had to.

Thirdly, did we take due account of the new equalities legislation?

That is where we fell short. I except everything the judge said.

Did you under estimate that piece of the legislation? I believe think

the key point now is where do we go from here? -- I really think.

you and -- it did you under estimate what the Act was all

about? Apparently, we were founded to be wanting in that area. But it

is a part of the legislation that we take very serious lead. -- very

seriously. I cannot tell you what is going to happen next, but I can

tell you my thoughts of from the judgement. The quickest thing we

can do is to live to the threat from the 11 libraries. -- we can

lift the threat. So those libraries are now it saved because there is

no appeal? There is no leave to appeal. We can have a look at

reduced opening hours for the other libraries. That would take a little

bit longer because some people have left our employment and we might

need it to be engage people. -- we might lead to take people on again.

So there is a lot of bats and balls about the libraries. But there is

also there more pressing matter of the money they had to be saved.

That is really important. We still have to save 1.3 million frowns. --

We can do that by introducing a new processes, such as barcode readers.

How much of a disaster is this legislation as far as you are

concerned? Should do not have been bringing end barcode readers

anyway? They were going to do that any be yes, but this is just one

way to help. I am completely sympathetic with this legislation.

We have a big change a programme coming up and the future of the

library's will be to be a part of that programme. Thank you very much

Thousands of us across the West did our bit to help raise money for the

BBC's Children In Need appeal this year. But set against a backdrop of

the toughest economic climate for many years, local youth groups have

told us they are left relying on money from Pudsey and other local

charitable organisations just to stay open. In some cases, as many

as 50% more applications are being made for help with funding in just

one year. In North Somerset, councillors announced this week

they are cutting the youth services budget by 72% which will leave many

more groups uncertain of their The Xtend after-school club is a

lifeline for these children from the Bournville Estate in Weston-

super-Mare. With the highest rates of child poverty in the South West,

these children love coming here. I was at home, I would not be doing

things like this. But the funding had dried up, meaning they would

have to close - until Children in Need stepped in. Then they have

received a phone call, we were ecstatic. We thought we would not

be here after Christmas. Are they did a dance round the office. Lots

of parents and reception saw it. It was a fantastic relief, we were so

scared that they were going to lose this.

Pudsey Bear was padding the streets of the West Country, raising money

to help vulnerable children. And this year, local children's

charities and groups like Xtend say the money is needed more than ever

to plug the holes opening up from councils ever shrinking budgets. In

North Somerset, campaigners demonstrated against the

Conservative administration's plans to slash their youth services

budget by 75%. The money is used to pay for youth centres like this one

in Portishead where jobs will go. The hope from the council is that

voulunteers or charities will step in to run them. They will step back

if we have no alternative, but they have improvement strategies. The

mean that the authority and the schools will work together with

other partners to maintain these facilities.

They claim they're not leaving vulnerable children in need. But

others disagree. We want to see a good partnership relationship

between the state, central government and local government,

rather than the idea that the state can withdraw from services and

charities takeover. And it's not just here in North

Somerset where they're making big cuts to youth services. Many of our

other councils are having to do the same as their budgets become

squeezed. The leader of Somerset County

Council Ken Maddock is still here and we are also joined by Denis

Stinchcombe MBE who has been a youth worker in Bristol for 35

years. As far as they used cuts -- the youth cuts are concerned, what

are your thoughts? We have to find a lot of what we do -- we have to

fund a lot of what we do from the public sector and the private

sector doorstep if you lose the public sector funding, you lose

staff. If you lose staff, the resources are cut. So that little

bit coming from the local authority, 20%, how do you survive without it?

The local authority grant I get for youth work is about �11,000 a year,

that is not a lot. With that, I ran about sex sessions for a young

people. Take That away and lose staff, in effect, I cannot deliver

the service. If I cannot deliver the service, those young people are

out of the streets. These are swingeing cuts. Surely, these are

fronts -- frontline services? two out of every �3 that we spend

is spent on caring for people who cannot care for themselves. Someone

with learning difficulties, it cost about �1,200 a week to look after

them. You have to plan for that expenditure long term. We have

about 250 such people to care for. We have to deliver services for

them. But you government is making these cuts. And you are making the

case for not doing that. We have to work more efficiently and bring in

more voluntary work and private sector help. I am on the front line,

I deal with the body, if you like. I do not have to deal with the

finance side of it. In Bristol alone, there are over 8000 young

people unemployed. Start closing down it that you centres and it

will add to the number of them out on the street. It was not long ago

that there were riots, caused by disaffected young people. I did not

come into politics to start closing things down. But we are so short of

money, we have to find new ways of doing it. We have got similar

problems and we have to talk together and work together to get

the best. Is it fair to expect charities and voluntary

organisations to pick up the bill? People are generous, but they

cannot keep doing it. I am constantly amazed by the way the

people rise to the occasion. �26 million raised on Friday for

children indeed. But is it fear that they have to pick up the tab?

-- is it right that they have to pick up the tab? Should I abandon

the people that cannot look after themselves and do not have a family

to care for them? That is how I have to look at it. Thank you both

very much indeed. Farmers in the West say a new

computer system is putting livestock at risk as it is

preventing them from getting TB infected cattle off their farms. In

some cases, they have been unable to take them to slaughter for more

than a month. There's a backlog of more than 1,000 cases that are

waiting to be processed due to the computer problems. Luke Hanrahan

reports. Bovine tuberculosis cost of the

economy around �100 million a year. It affects farmers across the South

West. Tens of thousands of cattle are killed. Herds are regularly

tested for the disease and it is common to find a few cattle have

got it. In the past, the process of sending sick cattle to slaughter

was relatively simple. But an error with a new IT system means there is

a new problem to contend with. This power has of bovine TB. Before

October 1st, it would have been on the farm for no more than a week.

But since then, for almost have been keeping them -- farms have had

to keep them on site for longer. Timmy, once a reactor is a reactor,

the sooner it leaves a farm, the better for all concerned.

Animal Health Agency, a subsidiary of Defra, has brought in an IT

system which it describes as a cost-cutting measure. It took 17

days to take the reactor's of. -- take the reactors of a. I am afraid

that I lost my cool with that agency. He cannot explain how his

cattle catch tuberculosis. They heard is isolated, surrounded by

thousands of acre of -- of thousands of acres of open field.

But one of his cattle has TB. just thought that she goes soon.

She could infect other cattle. sick cow needs to be removed as

quickly as possible so that the farm can press on with winter

preparations. But it is taking a lot longer than before, which is

costing all over money. There is cost-cutting across the board. But

if it is not working, they should not do it. For some MPs, the change

in the system has not been properly thought through. It is cost-cutting

without using common sense. There could be a number of ways of

improving the system. But it is feeling at the moment. In a

They say they are prioritising of work and extra staff has been

brought in to assist. For the minister now, we are working hard

on this at to make sure we can get the paperwork out to farmers.

have to do it under a different system, we will put it in place

until such time as this computer system either works or there is a

different system or go back to the old one. But we cannot allow

farmers, under huge stress already, to have these huge problems.

seems that the estimated 1200 cattle farmers in the South West

will have to grin and bear it. In the meantime, this power is stuck

on a farm, increasing the chances that bovine TB will be passed on.

And that's it from the West this week. The Politics Show continues

with Jon Sopel in London. If you want to get in touch with your