COUNCIL chiefs today warned of ‘pain’ for residents after moving to slash £9.2m from budgets.
Buckinghamshire County Council says cuts are needed because of an increase in demand for services and a cut in Government cash.
The authority – which runs services including roads, social services and schools – will release details of where the axe is set to fall on Wednesday. Changes need council approval.
It came as it was confirmed the council’s transport department will look at slashing money for speed cameras so that cash can be ploughed into roads maintenance.
And it said jobs would go in IT, finance and HR departments as part of the latest round of savings.
Leader Councillor David Shakespeare told The Bucks Free Press: “It is reductions across every service in the county council.
“Many of these we would rather not have to consider doing and it may well be, in the longer term process of normal budget making, that we would seek to reverse some.”
The Conservative said: “We are faced with having to pay back Labour’s debt mountain and there is not escape from that.
“Someone said ‘is it fair that local Government and the council taxpayer has to pick up it’s part of the pain because of the banks?’ “The answer is ‘no, it isn’t fair, but unfortunately that is what we have to live with’.”
Penny Gray, spokesman for the BCC Unison union branch, said: “We are disappointed that this Con-Dem Government have decided to take this stance.
“The people who work for local authorities, the librarians, the support workers and admin workers, they haven’t caused this massive deficit.
“It is the bankers and we have to bear the brunt of it.”
The council’s revenue budget is £303m and the cuts come on top of a bid to save £52m over four years.
Cabinet members were told costs had risen because of an increase in children needing care after the Baby P scandal, road repairs from the severe winter and a drop in car park income.
To add to this, £5.5m has been slashed from this year’s BCC’s budget by the new coalition Government’s emergency budget.
Cllr Shakespeare said the savings were the same as an extra six per cent on its share of the council tax – but the Government is expecting a zero per cent increase next year.
He said: “Many of the things we have to consider reducing are things we would not like to do.”
Cllr Patricia Birchley, responsible for adult social services, said the cut £1.4m cut to her budget ‘is a real worry for us’.
“These cuts are very serious and we will do the best we can,” she said.
Cllr Lin Hazell, responsible for children’s social services, said: “It may be uncomfortable, it will be painful but we have no alternatives.” She will suffer a £6.6m cut.
Cabinet member for transportation, Cllr Valerie Letheren, was asked by the cabinet today to try and find cash for roads maintenance by slashing speed camera money.
Earlier, we reported that she said the Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership, which manages cameras, could close this year if funding is cut by councils (see link, bottom of story).
She told The Bucks Free Press this would see responsibility for cameras fall to BCC – and she was minded to axe some cameras.
She said: “We will be looking at the option of cutting down the number. We would look to ask the police to do more mobile enforcement.
“It may be an option to keep some of them.”
She said the council is likely to withdraw funding to TVSRP, £600,000, if Oxfordshire County Council vote to pull out on Tuesday.
The cabinet proposed that £1.2m is found from a contingency fund to support the looked after children budget, £800,000 for social services and £885,000 for social services transport.
It also agreed to shake-up how IT, finance and HR departments work and review contracts. It will consider outsourcing in the future.
A statement said: “It is with regret that this phase will mean reducing the number of people delivering these services.”
Property services is also to be outsourced.
Last week, the council announced that it was not going ahead with a much vaunted project to share departments with other councils in Bucks in a bid to save cash.
The ‘Pathfinder’ scheme had struggled to get off the ground as councils withdrew support for sharing some services.
