I am astonished by the claim in your editorial that the massive cuts being imposed by the Conservative/ Lib Dem Government are well planned (June 22).

Last Thursday, I repeatedly failed to get an answer from the Conservative executive councillor for children and learning about what these cuts would mean for children and young people in Southend. Yet, we must make massive cuts in the space of a few weeks.

Southend Council has lost £1million of grants from the Department for Education with immediate effect, this is not loose change.

The council may have to make redundancies, but have no contingency to pay redundancy payments, forcing even deeper cuts and catching us in a vicious circle.

The Conservatives could have planned this better.

Perhaps they didn’t even want to be honest with their own councillors about the scale of cuts that were coming.

Councillor Ian Gilbert
Victoria Ward (Labour)
Avenue Road
Westcliff

...Chancellor George Osborne says his top priority is cutting the deficit.

But in order to get the deficit down, you need to keep economic growth up and keep unemployment down. You don’t get borrowing down by pulling the plug on support for business, throwing people out of work and stifling economic growth.

The Chancellor delivered a Budget that will throw people out of work, hold back economic growth and damage the public services we all rely on. Increasing VAT will mean higher prices will be paid in the shops by everyone, from pensioners to the unemployed The Tories gave us a reckless budget that pulls the rug out from under the recovery. And they couldn’t have done it without the support of the Lib Dems, who have let down everyone who voted for them in the election.

Matthew Ing
Apeldoorn
Benfleet