Council’s budget savings announced

The money the council receives from the government has been cut by £1.4m next year, leaving councillors to make extremely difficult decisions about the future of the council and the services it provides for the public.

Councillors identified around £2m of savings over the last year, most of which were behind-the-scenes changes such as a management restructure, and these savings had no effect on the services the public receives. However, with the government's announcement last December that the council's grant would be £1.4m less, additional savings proposals have had to be considered. Several meetings have taken place with councillors and senior management and it is proposed that in order to balance the budget there will be more redundancies and some services will have to stop.

Councillor Paul Bell, deputy leader of the council, explains more: "These are extremely painful decisions, but we have no choice as we are losing so much government money. We have a number of statutory services, things we are legally obliged to provide for the public, and of course these will continue. We are, however, looking at how we can meet this legal obligation but for less money. We have also looked carefully at our non-statutory services and a number of these will have to be stopped. It's difficult to go into too much detail at this time as we are still consulting on the proposals and we are taking all views into account, but we can reassure the public that they will still have their streets cleaned and their bins emptied. Unfortunately we can't guarantee that services such as holiday schemes, community development such as the work that's been done with the Hemmingwell estate, or the youth council for example will still be provided. There will be a reduced capacity to coordinate multi-million pound economic development and regeneration projects and delivery of the 2020 vision, and support and advice to businesses will be reduced.

"It is important that as a council we face up to these challenges. It is not a pleasant time, but it is the reality we are faced with and we must ensure we are financially fit and can carry on into the future. We will not be the same council we are now - there is no doubt we will be smaller and more focused - but we are not alone in being in this situation and we must now show that we can change and adapt in order to survive in these challenging times."

It is predicted that around 100 jobs will go at the council, of which a number will be voluntary redundancies and early retirement. Councillors have agreed that an amount of its reserves will be used to cover the costs of making the changes, such as redundancy payments, and that this use of reserves will only be an interim measure whilst the changes are being made.

The public consultation of service priorities runs until Wednesday 9 February and more information is available on the council's website www.wellingborough.gov.uk or from the council offices. The savings proposals will be discussed at a meeting of the resources committee on 9 February and the final budget will be considered by full council on 1 March.