Warnings have been issued in a new report which claims more than 6,000 jobs could be lost in Portsmouth in the next three years. City Council leaders will soon discuss at cabinet the findings, which say government cuts on public spending result in redundancies.
Toll collectors on the Itchen Bridge at Southampton are due to strike for seven days from Monday (June 6, 2011) which unions estimate will cost the cash-strapped council £250,000 over the short term. Refuse workers last week walked out, and said they will strike again on Saturday, June 4.
Councillors backed plans for the New Look Weymouth Gateway site at Mercery Road, which will create jobs, while the planning committee meeting of Weymouth and Portland Borough Council approved a new head office for New Look.
The independent board at the Isle of Wight’s prison (which is split into three components) has newly reported that, of numerous security lapses, the main problem was recorded at category C prison Camp Hill. The board also reported it was "totally unacceptable" that a prison housing almost 1,700 inmates had only one dog handler with two dogs.
Latest figures have shown pupils across Dorset behave better at school than the national average. The behaviour rating (good or outstanding) stats for Dorset have revealed that for primaries it was 95.5 per cent and in Poole it was 88.9 per cent, compared with a national average of 93.8 per cent.
The Lee on Solent and Portland centre is one coastguard services threatened by cuts. Under proposals, HM Coastguard, Portland – which is responsible for 145 miles (233km) of coastline and 2,300 nautical square miles off the coast – could be shut down in 2012 with a potential loss of 27 jobs.
A spokesman for the Association of Professional Ambulance Personnel (APAP) said not enough information had been given to staff on imminent budget cuts at the South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS). SCAS says about £30m will be saved from the service which covers Hampshire, among other areas.
Due to rising fuel and other costs charities say they are finding it difficult to cope. Solent Rescue, an independent lifeboat based at Lepe Country Park, in Exbury, covers around 33 square miles of the central and western Solent.
Firefighters in Hampshire gathered for a mass meeting over job cuts to the service. The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) met at Winchester Fire Station to discuss a protest march over the central government cuts. The FBU, which has hundreds of members in Hampshire, says 64 firefighting posts in the county will be lost.
The Conservative leader of Southampton City Council, Royston Smith defended an election leaflet criticising unions, saying everything in it is true. He backs its claims that unions “intimidated” workers into voting against plans to cut pay, jobs and services in a battle to fill a deficit in the authority’s budget.