Petition launched to save Maryon Wilson Animal Park in Charlton
A petition has been launched after Greenwich Council revealed plans to close Maryon Wilson Animal Park in Charlton.
The petition is already nearing 1,000 signatures with the potential closure announced by the council yesterday.
It was contained within a range of other cuts including reducing library hours. Many cuts for this year have still yet to be implemented according to reports before Greenwich’s cabinet next week including on street cleaning, libraries and leisure centres.
Cost pressures have continued with two major factors being social care costs and temporary housing. Greenwich Council has seen the use of temporary housing rise from 500 households to 2,000 in recent years.
The expected budget overrun this financial year is £17.9m. The council’s parking department also continues to perform poorly. A trend going back at least a decade.
Additional funding announced in the government’s budget last autumn far from plugs a projected spending gap next year and beyond.
Will it happen?
Costs to close the animal park are put at a modest £70,000. In the grand scheme of things that’s chicken feed for a council.
One suspects this cut may be announced now so the animal park can be saved later on – and distract from a raft of other cuts. It’s also good PR for the authority to do so after threats of closure.
Regardless of whether that is to happen or not, you can show your opposition to cuts by signing the petition here.
Just browsing the cabinet reports. If reading correctly government funding increase is just 3.2 per cent? That’s barely above CPI inflation and below RPI. So much for the council stating the new government are helping them. Looks as though austerity remains firmly in place while the underlying cost pressures of social care and housing aren’t being tackled to any great degree and so will only worsen. They’ll be selling the parks themselves next.
Surely Labour members and MPs realise this endless grind of cuts is only going to drive people to the likes of Reform?
Every day the headlines are exactly what we would have read a year ago before the election under the Tories. Not just the economy but social policies. Snooping on people. Authoritarian bills and laws. The Tories were swept away for a reason. Since then it’s barely imperceptible differences. Labour can go on about 14 years (and I’d agree as would many others) but if you offer nothing else what’s the point?
More council tax rises but where’s the moves to increase council tax on million pound homes? Nowhere. London is a stash fund for the world’s rich and at the bottom we pay for it.