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Socialists and trade union members are starting a petition against deep cuts planned by Coventry City Council – which could include closing libraries and asking schools to foot the bill for lollipop men and women.

Members of the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition are asking people to sign the petition calling for Coventry City Council to make up the cash shortfall – due to government funding being slashed – by using reserves instead of cuts.

The planned £65 million of cuts include closing 17 libraries, closing nine youth centres, axing funding for school crossing patrols, and reducing street cleaning.

Up to 1,000 jobs are expected to disappear by 2017 in the cuts. At the same time council tax is expected to rise.

The petition says: "We believe the council should use some of the £81 million it has in reserves to stop these cuts and buy time for a serious campaign in the city involving the council, trade unions and all those affected by the cuts to demand proper national funding from the government of essential local services.

"The people of Coventry did not create the national financial mess – that was the banks gambling and speculation.

"We think those rich individual and corporations who avoid or evade over £100 billion a year in tax should pay, not the ordinary families of Coventry."

National chairman of the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition, and former city councillor Dave Nellist, said: "The aim is to get 1,000s of signatures."

The petition is to be handed to councillors in early January ahead of a final decision on which services to cut.

A spokesman for Coventry City Council confirmed the council had £81 million in its reserves, £18 million of which belonged to schools.

He said: "The vast majority of our reserves are already committed within the medium term financial strategy such as to meet redundancy costs from the VR/ER (voluntary redundancy and early retirement) programme.

"Using reserves is a one-off and very short term fix while the funding gaps are annual."

Mr Nellist plans to stand for the council next year under the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition banner, campaigning against the cuts.