Northumberland Council wields a new spending axe
Sep 7 2010 by David Black, The Journal
SPENDING on roads, as well as services to children and young people, is set to be among the casualties of a new £10.5m package of emergency budget savings proposed in Northumberland.
The potential cuts were presented to county councillors for the first time yesterday in a bid to achieve in-year savings forced on the council by the coalition Government. They include a £656,000 hit on the highways budget and a £642,000 reduction in funding for the Connexions service, which provides information, advice and guidance to teenagers.
The package also proposes a £200,000 cut in the county’s Supporting People programme of housing-related support and a £289,000 reduction in the Children’s Fund budget.
In addition, there will be a £200,000 saving on plans for an extra care housing scheme for elderly people in Haltwhistle, with a warning that the whole project will have to be considered in light of funding pressures.
The package proposes a £2.5m cut in children’s services, £2m in local services such as roads, £1.9m each for adult services and regeneration and public protection, £1.3m in finance and £915,000 in the transformation agenda. It was accepted without discussion by the council’s Liberal Democrat executive yesterday, and will now be examined by opposition parties before final decisions on the savings are taken by the unitary authority in November.
The £10.5m is on top of £16.5m worth of savings already agreed for 2010/11 earlier this year, and is likely to be followed by a further £30m worth of cuts in 2011/12.
Last night, Conservative group leader Peter Jackson said: “We have not had time to look at the fine detail of these proposals, but we have been assured that most of this is being done by not filling vacancies, voluntary redundancies and natural in-year savings.
“However, we are concerned that £1.5m in capital funding that was put in earlier this year to pay for serious winter damage such as potholes has now been taken out of the highways capital programme.” Coun Andrew Tebbutt, executive member for corporate resources, said the package drawn up by senior management was a “work in progress” and there would now be further discussions in advance of a final decision in November.
The report to yesterday’s executive said there is a risk of industrial action if unions deem the cutbacks to be unacceptable.
The £656,000 cut in the highways budget involves not filling vacancies, reductions in spending on operational items such as salt, stores, tools and signs, and savings on vehicle repairs, consultancy and staff training.
A further £500,000 is to be saved in adult services by not filling vacant posts and reducing area-based grants for service users and staff costs, while £200,000 will be cut from behaviour support for problem children.
