Mean Council Cuts £2 Jobs For Disabled Workers

A MEAN-MINDED council have cut a £2-a-week payment for people with learning difficulties – after blowing thousands of pounds on globetrotting junkets.

More than 200 people, whose jobs include tidying up a country park and helping to build garden furniture, will lose out from next month.

The move will save West Lothian Council, who control a £340million budget, just £20,000.

It was rubber-stamped by councillors who forked out for expensive trips, including one to a wine-tasting festival in Texas.

David Gowans, whose disabled stepson Christopher Maxwell won two golds for the UK at the Special Olympics, said the move was “totally wrong”.

The council made the decision after voting through a £6million cuts package needed to ensure, like other local authorities, they can freeze council tax bills.

The £2-a-week payments were axed because they are considered a bonus – given to those who attend adult training centres.

However, disabled workers regard the cash, handed out in an envelope, as pay.

The letter, from service manager Ian Quigley, said: “It has been reluctantly decided to cease the bonus payments paid to individuals who attend day support services.

“I must stress this has not been an easy decision to reach and I am aware that some service users rely routinely on their bonus money.”

The cut affects 213 people who use adult training services in Linlithgow, Blackburn and Livingston – including 47 people based at the town’s Eliburn Adult Training Centre. Teams from the centre help tidy up the council-run Beecraigs Country Park, near Bathgate, each week.

The cut will also hit people who work at a factory unit in Fairbairn Road, Livingston, helping to make sheds, garden benches and tables, and bird boxes.

Christopher Maxwell represented the UK at the Special Olympics World Games in Shanghai, China, last year and won two gold and two silver medals for powerlifting in the 90kilo category.

It was the second time he has represented his country abroad, having competed in the 1999 Games in the USA.

His disabilities are quite severe and he has difficulty talking and both his balance and memory are affected.

Christopher, 32, and his friends usually go to Beecraigs three times a week.

Supervised by park rangers and social services workers, they tidy up rubbish, clear away debris from tree pruning and whitewash boulders marking the car park.

Speaking at the family home in Livingston, his stepdad David said: “When we saw the letter, we couldn’t believe it.

“Because of cutbacks, they have to save a certain amount of money, so they are hitting these vulnerable people.

“We accept the money is a bonus. But most of the adults with severe learning disabilities class it as a wage.

“Some of them will be thinking what have they done wrong.

“It’s unfair. To take this £2 per week off the most vulnerable people in society is totally wrong. Everybody at the centre looks forward to getting their bonus every month.

“My stepson comes back and says, ‘Mum, I’ve got my wages’.

“He’ll spend some of his money to go and watch Livingston Juniors on Saturday with his grandad.

“He saves the rest in a big jar.”

Alexander Pajewski, 32, who has spent 15 years making garden furniture at the Livingston factory, will also lose out.

His dad Alex, of Longridge, near Livingston, said: “They wanted to create a real work environment.

“They are taking that away and I fear they want to wind down the factory unit as well.”

The £2 cut comes from West Lothian’s health and care budget.

Independent councillor Ellen Glass, who was elected on an Action to Save St John’s Hospital ticket after vowing to protect services, is responsible for the budget.

She was one of five councillors, also including SNP council leader Peter Johnston, who were criticised last year over a junket to a wine festival in Grapevine, Texas.

The official visit, to consider a possible twinning link, cost the taxpayer £2250. Senior councillors also visited Greece, Russia and China.

In total the new SNP, Tory and independent administration spent £15,000 of taxpayers’ cash on overseas trips during their first five months in power following lastMay’s election.

Councillors were also criticised for spending £70,000 on a giant marquee for civic events in Linlithgow.

Labour MP for Livingston Jim Devine said he was “appalled”.

He added: “I joined the Labour Party to ensure social justice and stand up for people like Christopher and the 200 others in my constituency who are in the same situation.”

Labour councillor Graeme Morrice said it was “outrageous” and vowed to try to overturn the decision.

But council leader Johnston called the payment “tokenistic and discriminatory”.

He said they were the last council in the Lothians to end the payments, adding: “The Labour Party in West Lothian supported abolition on February 12 and now are they complaining about it.

“They are using vulnerable people to score cheap political points.”