We have had more than our fair share of the bad weather here in North Lincolnshire over the past few days and, as is usual, North Lincolnshire Council has come under attack, principally from the local media, for its lack of preparation for the bad weather. Paul and I, as the Labour candidates for Broughton and Appleby agree, gritting the roads and clearing snow is a priority but, under the circumstances, any local authority would have struggled to keep up with the weather and, even if they could have done, North Lincolnshire Council is facing huge cuts to its financing from Central Government and is therefore being forced to make difficult and often problematic decisions about its vital services. The Coalition Government has made much of it�s concept of localism and of devolving power to local authorities but, wrapped up in that rhetoric, it has overseen the slashing of funds for many local councils and, as a result, town halls up and down the country will lose on average 27% of their funding over the next four years. As a comparison, the Government itself is cutting budgets by an average 11% for Whitehall departments. The cuts to Local Government are frontloaded - so that the heaviest cuts fall in the first year - giving local councils almost no chance to plan where savings can be made hence, it appears, the unenviable task of deciding which roads to grit. This is not merely about gritting roads however; public services on which local families, the elderly, children and the most vulnerable rely are also threatened � simply because of Government ideology. In a return to the darkest days of Thatcherism, the most deprived areas will be hardest hit � while the most prosperous areas, such as West Oxfordshire which contains the Prime Minster�s constituency of Witney, look set to benefit. These local government cuts could cause as many as 140 000 job losses this year and nearly 50,000 people in town halls have already been warned they could lose their jobs. This, in itself, is inexcusable but the results of these cuts on our most vulnerable people is the most difficult to accept and, for our part, Paul and I will do all we can to ensure that in Broughton and Appleby, and in North Lincolnshire as a whole, the Coalition Government budget cuts will not harm our communities. The Coalition Government has made a choice; it has chosen to hit local government with bigger cuts than other government departments and it has chosen to frontload so that the heaviest cuts fall in the first year, rather than spreading them more evenly over the four years; and it has chosen to impose the cuts on the most deprived areas and lower and middle income communities rather than distributing them fairly. The cuts are too deep, too quick and are putting frontline local services at risk. We must oppose them.