大象传媒

Documentary series telling the story of how the city of Stoke-on-Trent struggles to cope with the impact of the largest funding cuts to local government ever imposed by central government.

The depth of the cuts forces not just the council to reconsider what they do and how they do it, but the people of Stoke to ask themselves what they expect their local authority to do for them. This is not just the story of Stoke, it is the story of us all as it goes behind the rhetoric of whether we are all in it together in this age of austerity, or whether it is right to take tough choices because we have become over-dependent on services that we can simply no longer afford.

With in-depth access to the council and its decision makers and following the human consequences of decisions taken in the town hall and Whitehall, this is a gripping and moving tale of power, competing priorities and the intimate human costs of cuts recorded over the course of a year.

It's summer 2011 and having just made the biggest budget cuts in a generation, the council is staring down the barrel once again. It has cut 拢36m this year and expects to slash another 拢20m next year. But the irony is that the council is owed 拢20m in unpaid council tax. With one of the worst collection rates in the country, the council leader and chief executive are under pressure to chase the debtors and perhaps bridge the funding gap.

However, this is a city with huge levels of deprivation and unemployment and getting people to pay up isn't easy. Out with a local bailiff, it gradually becomes clear that there are those that simply can't pay, but also those that won't if they can get away with it. And as council services close across the city, it begs the question - how many might have stayed open if everyone had paid their dues?

But civic responsibility doesn't end there. The Big Society is being championed by the prime minister and now it's time to see if it can work in Stoke. If services are to survive, maybe it's down to residents to run them? The country's oldest Victorian swimming pool has been closed by the council as part of the cuts. The local vicar, Father John, has formed a residents group to try and keep it open. He needs to show the council that the community has the will and the appetite to run it themselves. More than that, he needs to raise money quickly.

Everyone is fighting for a slice of an ever-diminishing cake. After a year of campaigning, Stoke's mums continue to knock on the door of the council's re-elected leader, Mohammed Pervez. They plead for him to change his mind about cuts that might devastate the city's Sure Start centres and lobby to be reprieved of 750,000 pounds worth of cuts already announced. But if he agrees, someone else is bound to lose out.

After a year of cuts in Stoke, what is the future for the city itself and what lessons are there for the rest of the country as the austerity measures continue reshape all our relationships with local government?