Council rocked by £19m cuts bombshell

District council says it will have to increase council tax and cut more services after latest blow

FIRST it was £10.8m, then it was £14.8m – now West Berkshire Council has been rocked by the news it could have to make cuts to the scale of £18.9m next year.

Council leader Roger Croft told the Newbury Weekly News it is the “worst set of cuts he’d ever seen” and warned that the council would have to “consider every option” to find the money.

The council originally thought it would have to make £10.8m savings, based on assumptions it would have its grant from central government reduced by 25 per cent in 2016/17.

It was proposing to achieve this by making savings in 47 different areas of public spending, including closing children’s centres and care homes and raising car park charges.

But a week before Christmas the Conservative-controlled district council was rocked by the news that its Tory counterparts were instead planning to slash its funding by 44 per cent.

However, just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse, they do.

After “looking at the devil of the detail” the council now says it may have to save £18.9m as a “worst case scenario” next year.

Speaking to the Newbury Weekly News on Tuesday, Mr Croft said: “If things stay the way they are, this is without doubt the worst and hardest set of cuts we’ve ever had to face.

“We are going to have to find the money through a mixture of increasing council tax, cutting more public services, making internal redundancies and raising charges."

For the full story and more reaction, see this week's Newbury Weekly News.