At a recent Council meeting, Hobbayne Conservative Cllr Colm Costello asked the leader of the Council how much this Labour council had cut the money that the Council spends on unions.
The leader of the Council admitted it was not much, approximately 10% had been cut from what's called union facility time, and none in the first two years.
The same council had cut over 40% from the community safety budget, over 40% from the park ranger service and over 40% cuts to the envirocrime officers budget all in year one of this administration, but only 10% from the unions after 2 years..
Cllr Costello asked a follow up question. "Did the leader of the Council and every other Labour Cllr have to be a member of a union to be allowed to stand at the next election and might this condition have influenced their decision to cut union facility time by only 10% when they had cut so much more from frontline services that residents depended on".
Cllr Bell admitted that he had to be a member of a union to be allowed to stand as a candidate at the next election, but that this and the fact the unions pay most of the bills the Labour party accumalate has no influence on how well the unions do in Ealing compared to the residents under Labour.
In other words, the unions come first for the Labour party in Ealing and residents come second.