How much money does Manchester council have in the bank, for a rainy day? (I think current times constitute a rainy day)

Don't spend money on a town hall extension and that will save them £170 million.

Councils in the south are not immune to cuts so let's not have the tired chip on the shoulder North/South thing.

If anything that South are moaning because the vast majority of their taxes go to Northern councils. They moan about the disproportionate amount we get!

i think this campaign is a non starter.
the city council at a time to save money are goiing to spend more money setting up campaign sites across the region is madness. bernstein asnd leese are quite good at spending other peoples money.
why doesnt bernstein and all other chief executives in the region take a pay cut? oh dear that would never do would it???
the cuts unfortunately have to be made because of too may years of reckless spending - time to pay the price.

I'll sign, but we are spitting(sic) in the wind until/unless the discredited LibDems come to their senses and ditch their allegiances to this failed, faux 'coalition' - thus hastening a general election.

The electorate did not vote for a coalition, so, if the Tories believe they can win voters over to their vision of how 'the cuts' they are instituting will work, let them go to the ballot box and have the people choose.

Cue: wannabe Tories (they've still not realised they are merely Tory lackeys, despised by the ruling elite), with an over-inflated opinion of themselves, claiming what the conservatives are doing is necessary, because of Labour's debt legacy - go on, you know you want to - and who will argue against a new election as they know they can't win it, alone...

Do you really expect fairness from a Tory government, I would be surprised.If it were any different.
Pity it isn 't only those who voted for this government of millionaires who are suffering.
They are totally out of touch with ordinary people and worse do not care one jot.Cameron,Osborne,May born to rule.

The cuts are affecting the most vulnerable, already GMPTE have announced that due to their reduction in grants from the council it has resulted in the schoolchildrens' concessonary fare of 80p on bus travel being abolished and they will have to pay a half of the adult fare for their journey to and from school as from April. Sounds like an April fool's joke but unfortunately it's not. Talk about the children paying for the sins of the adults, in this case - the greedy bankers.

Why doesn't Manchester City Council sell COMs to Manchester City. £300m should do it.

This article is garbage. Manchester is one of the most poorly run administrations in the country. It is both inefficient and wasteful with public money and yet the Labour run administration stands unopposed for over 40 years with little or no opposition - how is that good for democracy? This council can't even keep the streets of Manchester City centre clean never mind any other services it tries to run.
As for nobody voting for a coalition - so what - nobody has voted for an all out Labour or Conservative Government in the last 100 years - most Governments have been voted under a minority mandate under the first past the post electoral system - the sooner we change the voting system to reflect the percentage vote of the electorate the better.

Wll of corse as one of the biggest takers of government taxes if the government needs to make savings of course you look at the biggest outgoings first.

I am fed up with everybody moaning about cuts. Nobody wants them but unless we spent liek we did before them somebody somewhere is going to moan aboiut 'me, me, me'.

Whilst we are talking about unfairness why not let's talk about government tax contributing a national average of £249 per person but in Manchester we get £757 per person. Ho wis that fair on the rest of the country?

"Manchester council spent £20,000 hiring conference space at Eastlands and £750 on a huge chicken hotpot in a single month"

The hypocrisy of champagne socialism.

Is this the same Manchester City Council that spent "... £675 on children’s yoga at SureStart schemes across the city, plus £1,275 on kickboxing for youngsters."?

After reading the very vague list of spending by councils yesterday, I do believe that savings can be made. For starters if lesbien and gays,religeous groups, charity`s, community groups dedicated to one part of the community be that irish, asian,chinese,west indian,bangladeshi etc want to operate then let them fund themselves.
Any money given to these councils be it by goverment or council tax should be distrubeted fairly and equally between all and not be squandered on groups and projects that are just taking because it is being offered.
Temporary staff is also an issue, mainley caused by the sick pay brigade.Stop the sick pay or keep the temps and get rid of the rot, if lower paid temps can do the jobs anyway then perhaps we are overpaying many who are simply just filing clerks.
Consultants would not be needed if the council simply recruited people who can do the jobs instead of employing people who can`t
Stop pension scheme and let employees sort their own out, and increase pension age to the same as everyone else.
The list of changes is endless, just as the spending that these councils seem to do is.On top of this the list only covered spending over £500, so even though unlisted I would like to see a total figures for the money spent below that amount.
Finally the MEN should keep out of politics as it is supposed to be a local paper and should cover the news and not dictate it.

There's a danger that if you concentrate on the margins, you miss the bigger picture. Here's the "unfair" formula grant for 2011/12, per head, for selected Councils:

Manchester: £739.93
Salford: £619.08
Trafford: £350.36
Stockport: £331.46
Dorset: £227.59
Surrey: £178.42

Now, it's absolutely right that Councils like Manchester receive more in formula grant - inner-city authorities have a lower Council Tax base and particular problems with deprivation, but the idea that these budgets are manifestly unfair is clearly not true. Even after these cuts, Manchester receives more than four times the formula grant that Surrey does.

The main reason that Manchester City Council in particular is having to make such huge cuts is because of decades of overspending, inefficiency and poor management, and a failure to plan properly for cuts in spending that were coming even if Labour had been returned to power in Westminster.

To use one example, Manchester's sickness rate is 12.99 shifts per staff member per annum - that's nearly 340000 lost shifts every year. The public sector average is around 9 shifts, the private sector average is about 6.5 and the rate for an operational firefighter in Greater Manchester is 4.98. How much money does this poor management cost the Manchester taxpayer every year?

People would do better pressuring the government for a fairer tax regeme and closing loopholes that allow huge tax avoidance.

This government has boasted it has reduced corporation tax, and employers NI, raised the level at which higher rate tax is paid. All of these benefit the wealthy.

It has raised VAT and fuel duty plus other purchase taxes all of which affect the poor more than the rich.

In addition it has refused to carry on the windfall tax on bankers bonuses which the previous government levied.

It is ovbious even to a partisan obxerver the coalition is legislating for the benefit of the rich at the expense of the poor.

It is allowing companies such as Boots, Cadburys, Vodaphone, & Arcadia Group to avoid corporation tax by registering a post office box address as their head office. If this loophole was closed there would be no requirement for any of the cuts now being seen.

And here lies the proof that the coalition is not really worried by the defecit, it's just a story to frighten the children, it's an excuse to slash at the services to the poor, to increase the taxes on them, while reducing tax (in some cases to nothing) for the rich. Soon we will see the bank shares sold and the proceeds used to finance inheritance tax cut to nothing for the wealthy, while the poor have to continue paying.

One day Labour will work out an economic policy, but until they do it's impossible to comment, that however could be the case for a long long time!

I'd like to applaud your stance well done M. E. N

next job : sack the Grimes fella

it would also be interesting to see what wastage levels the southern based councils have.

if they're as bad or worse then i'd support this campaign.

but somehow i doubt it. no one can be as wasteful as oldham council surely?

Looking forward to MCC publishing their January/ February figures. How much money will be spent on this campaign?

Don't get me wrong I think both Cllr Leese and SHB have done fantastic things for our fair city pulling it up by the laces post Thatcher britain. But they've forgotten how we got here. It's time to bin the polished campaigns of the naughties and head back to grass roots campaigns - badly photocopied news rags (in the style of Police Watch), witty placards and banners.

Get Battle back where he serves his people best on the campaign frontline (placards and markers at the ready) and stick Mycio etc back in their DMs swinging from the rafters.

As anyone who reads Vouge can tell you the seventies is the key trend S/S11!

as a MCFC season ticket holder,why dosent Manchester sell C.O.M. stadium and we never here about any profits from Manchester Airport Group This is owned by Manchester 55% the other councils who made up GTR Manchester 5% each

Curious. When it comes to having money handed to you, and you get more than the others, this is fair.

When the reverse occurs, this is now unfair.

There are any number of lessons here, mainly about how relying on the state always being your best buddy is imbecilic in the extreme, and how having such a large state always comes round and bites you in the backside.

Not that I expect the Fabians, Nannyists and Statists of any political stripe to recognize that fact.

Pleased to see the MEN backing this campaign. The cuts - imposed by the Tories and Lib Dems in Whitehall and backed voraciously by their colleagues in local government - are by no measure fair and will hit the most vulnerable the hardest. Lets send a message to Cameron and Clegg that we want our money back!

All this Labour v Tory nonsense, is not getting anybody anywhere, one party overspent and got the country in massive debt, then the other made huge cuts, then the third party abandonded it's policies and joined up with the one that is presently in power.

They are all one and the same, a three headed beast. Non of them are the answer, the order needs to be broken but will never be allowed to. Some call it a democracy, and some call it totalitariansm. To quote the old simple saying is true. "Whoever you vote for the Goverment will always get in".

Look on the bright side! At least we're all in this together.

i know lets get the banks to pay back all what they owe for starters!! then instead of bringing in a huge amounts of cuts all in one go lets try to drip feed them in so that families can get by.

I think the MEM has gone barking mad by stoking the financial crisis up in this way.
With millions ripping the Country Off with benefits,with Councils throwing money (which is ours) at
useless idea`s which are sheer waste such as the Big Bang a load of rusting ironwork which cost us not the pockets of Councillors,then we have installing Statues doing nothing other than a seat for Pigeons etc,plus the destruction of Piccadilliy Gardens with Concrete Walls.
Anyone could fill pages and pages of aborted schemes because they were not thought out.
And as soon as the penny drops that Councils have gone mental with our money shelling out to groups to uphold votes as soon as they fill out a "we want money form".
And whats the results,nothing in Greater Manchester is better than 30 years ago,nearly all services we expect for our money have vanished into a clack hole to support Council jobs for all with Heads of Departments,Deputies,Line Managers,Assistants,Assistant Managers,,
plus that many Quangoes where people sit around the tables curing nothing.no positive idea`s,,
but enjoy seeing their name`s on minutes circulated.
The Greater Manchester Councils have promed people who cannot do the job they are were employed for because those actually choosing the staff themselves could not hold down a job in Commercial Businesses,resulting in family members ending up in Council jobs because it was a soft touch,big pension,and plenty of union protection.
Thats what Greater Manchester Councils have created,and tell me the proportion of Councillors who could actually run and head a big business,(probably 5%)So please MEN dig into and broadscast this side of numerous failures to spend with sensible,thought out,value for money
projects instead of throwing money at Lavour Voter localities where in just a few years the situation will require re-furbishing,dismantling,and on an on amounts of money based on where can we sustain votes for the next election.
MEN you are being blinkered from within for whatever reason,but now its time the Piper was paid for the absolute missue of Our Money.and the need to curb the same people who created the absolute mess were in.

In the intrests of fairness and balanced reporting I would like to see the figures showing how spending was increased across the same councils under labour. My earlier but incomplete research indicated that Labour councils tended to get significant increases in grants over the last 5-10 yrs while conservative councils were given much lower (often below inflation) settlements.

It works both ways M.E.N. The Labour spending spree in the run up to the general election could be viewed as a cynical ploy to buy votes and is equally as unjust as some of the cuts.