According to Councillor Iain Roberts, the council have already cut around £32 million from the Council budget over the previous two years after the then-Labour government first made it clear that savings had to be made of between £40million and £70million over four years and he reports that total savings over four years is now looking to be around £60 million.
For 2013/14 the council are looking to make savings of about £15million, with the same for 2014/15.
Proposals have already been consulted upon and brought forward for about half of that £30 million and further difficult decisions have to be made and savings have to be identified. Councillor Roberts says:
“We’re looking at every way to make savings, including seeing whether we can share staff and services with other councils (we already do this in many areas, it may be possible to do more). We’re proposing raising Council Tax by 2.5% – the first rise in three years – as an alternative to adding several million more onto the savings total.
“I think it’s important that elected councillors are looking at what we can do too; the cost of councillors is falling: our allowances have been frozen for several years and will fall next year. Our expenses are down. Sue Derbyshire – the Lib Dem leader of the Council – has announced that the cost of the Executive will come down by 20% next year”.