Wellingborough Council approve draft budget

A draft budget of £9.4 million was approved, based on government funding and income available for the year. This is considerably reduced from last year's budget of £12.6m. Substantial savings of approx £1.8m have been identified over the past few months, however there is still a shortfall of over £1.7million.

In previous years the council has propped up the budget from its savings, but these have reached a level now that means this is no longer an option. This, together with an unexpectedly challenging grant settlement from the government means that the council is now looking at new ways to make further savings.

A management restructure and a number of staff suggestions to save money identified £1.8m of savings, including making changes to the caretaking and cleaning arrangements at the council, closing Croyland Abbey's reception, deleting vacant posts and reviewing all grants. Services are also being reorganised and in some cases merged, and the number of jobs at the council is being reduced. These savings, which mainly affect behind-the-scenes work, were agreed so that the public would notice as little difference as possible in the services they receive.

However, the government's grant settlement figures, issued to the council on 13 December 2010, were much worse than expected and mean a reduction in government funding of £1.4m for next year with a further reduction of £600,000 the following year. This leaves the council in the position of finding a considerable amount of further savings in order to balance the books. Special meetings of councillors and senior management will be held over the next few weeks to identify ways to make up the shortfall, before a final budget is agreed at the next resources committee meeting in February. Consultation on the budget will begin on Monday 10 January and people will be able to give their opinions on the draft budget, as well as influence how the extra £1.7m of savings can be made. The consultation documentation will be available on the council's website www.wellingborough.gov.uk so that people can give their views online. Paper copies will be available in the council's receptions, or by phoning 01933 229 777 and requesting a copy in the post.

Councillor Paul Bell, deputy leader of the council and deputy chairman of the resources committee said: "Even after taking into account the considerable savings we have already identified, our current expenditure stands at £1.7m more than the £9.4m we will have available next year. Clearly we have to find this money and reduce the expenditure, and we have to do this quickly. The government's settlement was considerably worse than we were expecting, but that's the reality we're facing and we can't change it. What we can, and will, do is work hard to make sure that we manage these cuts in a way that affects the public as little as possible, but we have to be prepared for services to be provided differently, some services may have to stop, and people will lose their jobs. There are lots of discussions going on at the moment. Everything that the council does is being looked at, and we will have a clearer picture in the next few weeks. Formal consultation on the budget will begin on Monday, and public opinion will be taken into consideration as we work out how to make up the shortfall."