COUNTY council bosses have this morning outlined 'painful' spending cuts of £58 million, with about 300 staff posts set to be axed.

Buckinghamshire County Council's cabinet members have approved a draft budget for the next three years, which represents a reduction in spending of about 20 to 30 per cent.

A 14 per cent reduction to the grants received from the Government have led to the need for cuts. The council also proposes to freeze council tax for 2011/12

The draft will go to public consultation before it can be approved by the full council on February 17.

Brief descriptions of the cuts were provided in a 19-page spreadsheet at the meeting in Aylesbury this morning. The document does not contain details of the 300 posts which are at risk.

Among the cuts to the Adults and Families department, there is a proposed reduction of £1.1 million to the 'culture and learning' budget, which includes a £233,000 reduction of the council's spending on adult learning.

Cuts of £5.8 million are proposed for the 'provider services' budget over the next three years, which includes a £2.7 million hit to services for people with learning disabilities.

Under the Children & Young People department, more than £4.4 million is set to be chopped from the 'safeguarding' budget, which includes fostering and the youth offender service.

Proposed cuts to the council's 'achievement and learning' budget total £3.5 million, with a £825,000 reduction to spending on the youth service.

The Bucks Free Press has also obtained details of further proposals to axe 140 youth worker posts, which will put the future of 30 youth centres at risk (see link below).

Under Transportation, £1.4 million is the planned cut for 'client transport', which includes the removal of a subsidy for school transport for sixth formers.

About £1.3 million is set to be removed from the main transport budget.

Though the council's day-to-day budgets have taken large hits, cabinet members were celebrating an “unexpected” capital grant of £31 million, which can be spent on things like roads, infrastructure and building maintenance.

Council leader, David Shakespeare, Conservative, said: “This is a difficult budget...I don't want anyone to forget there will be pain involved. But the situation is less worse than it could have been.”

He said the capital grant funding had been secured after negotiations with the new coalition Government.

The council has earmarked £7 million to go on highways maintenance, £2.6 million for integrated transport schemes, £8.6 for additional school places, £7.5 million for school buildings maintenance, £3.8 for maintenance to county council buildings and £4 million to reconfigure day care services.

Cllr Shakespeare added: “Our priority has always been, and remains, protecting front line services. We continue to find ways of making cost reductions internally, and have achieved reductions of £57 million over the past four years from back office services.

“This process will continue, and measures already planned include reducing the number of councillors by eight in 2013, outsourcing and transforming back office services, as well as negotiating with unions on staff pay and conditions.”

The council said it will consult separately on changes to its youth services, transport and some adult social care services, in addition to ongoing consultations on libraries and daycare services.

For the full list of budget changes see link below.