Fair Deal petition handed over to PM

Coun Alan Rhodes, leader of Nottinghamshire County Council and Gloria De Piero MP presented the 3,222 signature document on Monday.

The ‘Fair Deal’ petition calls for the Government to think again about its approach in making the largest cuts to councils in areas where deprivation is highest.

Only five county councils in the whole country saw a bigger reduction than Nottinghamshire in the latest round of cuts to council funding.

Despite already saving more than £100m from its budgets and shedding 3,000 jobs since 2010, the council’s main source of Government funding, the Revenue Support Grant, is being cut by a further 21 per cent over the next two years.

This is equivalent to a £63 cut per resident in Nottinghamshire, double that of more affluent areas in the south of England.

Buckinghamshire has seen a funding cut of just £29.84 per person, while Surrey gets a £32.74 cut per person.

Coun Rhodes said: “We’ve taken some very difficult decisions to balance our budget but despite cutting back on nearly every service we provide, we still need to face a funding shortfall of £77 million over the next four years.”