THE leader of Warrington Borough Council has issued a grim warning that the authority is likely to have to find savings of £50 million over the next three years.
This is £20 million more that the £30 million cuts the council agreed last year.
Coun Ian Marks (pictured) said: “This will result in a fundamental shift in how this council operates – making small savings everywhere will no longer be enough.
“Instead there will have to be a radical programme of business transformation which will see the shape, size and structure of the organisation change.
“All councils are facing exactly the same challenges as we are.
Coun Marks was talking about the budget setting process for the coming year.
He said; “Following the Comprehensive Spending Review to be announced on October 20, we are predicting a need to plan for £50m savings over the next three years.
“This is £20m on top of the £30m we agreed last year.”
Coun Marks accepted this would lead to uncertainty among council staff but pledged to fully involve them in the process.
“It is vital to fully involve them in this process so they understand what is happening and we take advantage of all their knowledge and experience to help plan the necessary savings.
“We will also be actively involving the public and business at an early stage so they understand the scale of the challenge facing us and help us with their ideas too.
“Members from all parties will be involved and briefed as appropriate.”
6 Comments
Reduce the number of councillors by 50%. STOP printing so many leaflets. Bite the bullet and get rid of un-needed civil servants. Most of all, look at the internal system BEFORE cutting even more services.
stop putting traffic lights everywhere, stop buying stupid “skittles” like art, start charging your staff the standard rate of parking, have an immidiate buying freeze accross all depatments. ban purchasing at the end of the tax year I have seen councils with my own eyes (USING UP) their budget on new computers etc.. because they know they loose it in april so go on a spending spree…tell them that using the budget up risks jobs
fortnightly black bin collections -I cannot believe people have FULL bins EVERY week.
stop the green bin collection after october til March.
No thanks to fortnightly bin collections !! They have them where my sister lives and despite paying to have the bins disinfected after EVERY collection and also using fly repellant and bin sacks they have been innundated with smells, blue bottles and maggots all summer. They are all complaining to the council about it in the hope that weekly collections can be resumed!
My bin is full every week as is my blue bin. this is a service we pay directly for so we are entitled to the service level we have at the moment. theres plenty of savingsthat can be made without impacting services. We just have to loose flamboyant spending on whims like cycle lanes, how much is “The orford park project”…I’m not against it entirely but maybe it shoices rather than should be suspended until the economy is more affluent. theres no need for service cuts if you maintain services without inventing new ones
Black bins to be collected FORTNIGHTLY and blue bins to be collected MONTHLY – it will ensure people correctly recycle and flatten all rubbish. If that’s not enough for you, take it to one of the council refuse depots.