Liverpool rebels rebuked

ARCHBISHOP Derek Worlock of Liverpool has attacked the confrontational policies of the City Council in its battle with the Government over the rates.
"I have pleaded — for the most part in vain — that there must be another way: an alternative to the collision course which had been chosen", said Archbishop Worlock during his sermon at Liverpool Cathedral on Civic Sunday.
He added that "if there has been a refusal or a failure to find an alternative, there have been no victors".
But the archbishop also pointed out that the Government's policy of holding down local government spending was having serious consequences.
He said: "With the present level of rate support grant and heavy bank loans, there can be no disguising that still further cuts are being forecast". This news came at a time when morale in the city was "severely damaged".
Archbishop Worlock reiterated the Church's support for Merseyside County Council's struggle to survive. It is to be abolished next month. He said the price of breaking up the authority was going to be, as predicted, that initiatives would "go up the wall".
The district councils taking over responsibility for funding voluntary organisations did not have the money to maintain commitments.