Even before the recession, Barking and Dagenham had been identified as one of the four most deprived London boroughs for:

Number of working-age benefit recipients
Low pay for those living and working in the borough Working-age people with limiting long-standing illness Under age pregnancies

The Conservative-Liberal Democrat government coalition has reduced by 28% the funding to Barking and Dagenham. And the Labour council is passing this onto to local residents. This will mean:

Up to 200 council staff to be sacked
Slashing redundancy pay for sacked workers by more than half One-stop shop services to be reduced
Loss of post-school educational facilities in facilities in the Adult College
Closure of the Broadway theatre

This economic crisis is not of our making. The banks were bailed out with public funds four years ago, creating a massive debt. We are now being forced to pay for this debt with cuts in our public services, jobs, pay, benefits and pensions. But there is no cap on the earnings of the directors of banks, and the rich continue to avoid and evade their taxes.

This is not our crisis! We should not pay for it!