WELL now we can see that Gloucestershire County Council have really bought the great big lie that is the Tory 'big society.' A society where they leave us to provide the basics that local government should.

They say these cuts are necessary.?But where then is the cut to our tax??Reduce the services – retain the taxes. No, in fact, increase the costs to ordinary people.

For example, the county response to the CSR seeks an additional £1 million in revenue from parking alone (that's more to us, because we'll have to cover the costs too!) In a rural area like the Dean that's ridiculous for anyone who drives to work. I park in Newent five days a week. At £3 a day (which seems the going rate in Monmouthshire) I'm paying another £720 a year (on a 48 week year) in back-door taxes. And what for? Things like the proposed "new Life Skills Centre which will provide a place where people can learn about personal and community safety issues in an interactive, stimulating environment?"

What? A new 'Life Skills Centre' but cut 1,000 jobs at the council? And you can't tell me that services won't be affected by this. Are we seriously suggesting that the work of 1,000 council workers is virtually pointless; that 1,000 staff contribute nothing?

What else? "...reshaping the service on a core group of libraries" – if that isn't government-speak for closing libraries, I don't know what is.

Free school buses are also set to disappear. How does that help the environment and reduce congestion? Parents, wherever possible will use their cars. And if they can't – then hard luck, there's another back-door tax to pay for the ConDem ideological cuts.

All these small add-ons will hit extra hard come the VAT rise next year. But not for the middle classes and upwards who will barely notice these changes.

They say "Gloucestershire County Council wants to work with communities to develop the interest, entrepreneurial skills, networks, governance, volunteers, social enterprises etc that will be needed for them to flourish" – I say how about just focusing on providing the essential services and quit with this fake partnering malarkey? The voluntary sector already steps in where local and central government fail us. Now the Tories want us to do more of it for even less. You'll be fine if you've got your own private healthcare and the salary to match, but ordinary working people depend on these services.

Gloucestershire CC has swallowed this idea that we need to cut, cut, cut. But it simply isn't true. You can offset the cuts through, to name but a few socially-just ideas: the Robin Hood Tax; a one-off windfall on the super-rich; or scrapping Trident and nuke instead the massive corporate tax dodgers like Vodaphone (the 3rd largest company on the London Stock Exchange and whose profits were up this year currently at £8.6bn) and whose legal tax avoidance, according to some experts, amounts to £6bn.

There are 433 local authorities in the UK. Vodaphone's £6bn in tax avoidance alone would amount to nearly £14 million less in cuts per authority! That's just one example of how corporations need to pay their way more. After all it is us the people, as consumers, who create these profits in the first place.

In March 2011 there will be a national demonstration against these savage cuts. Anyone who wants to save the Forest from its sell-off, save the NHS and public services should join us seeking to organise a mass turnout. This is Save our Services and Save our Forests and so much more all in one!

I ask that readers write to show their support of Forest-wide opposition of these cuts.?It's MP Mark?Harper's government that's forcing these cuts through; do you really believe he has the power and authority to guarantee that the Forest remains to its people, the Foresters? Of course not. And once any of these things are gone, it will be virtually impossible to win them back. Help the aged, the poor, the infirm, the children, the future and yourselves. Start organising to stop these cuts!

– Carl Spiby, St Briavels.