Council to vote on £10m cuts tonight

WEST Berkshire councillors will tonight (Tuesday) vote on whether to make £10m worth of cuts including closing children's centres and cutting funding to other vital public services.

Residents who are unable to attend the district council's crunch budget meeting will be able to watch it online.

The meeting starts at 6.30pm at the council's Market Street offices, with the webcast beginning a few minutes beforehand.

The video will be available on both the council's YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPkB2WQ879x052W2Qb5_1jw and via its website http://info.westberks.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=32281

The full agenda and reports for the meeting are already available online at http://decisionmaking.westberks.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=116&MId=3167

Speaking about the decision to webcast the meeting Cllr Roger Croft, Leader of West Berkshire Council, said: "We know there is a great deal of interest in the budget from residents potentially affected by our proposals.

"By streaming the meeting over the internet we will allow more people to listen to the debate on the plans and the outcome of our vote."

The council say that seating within the council chamber will be "extremely limited", with priority given to those people who have a role to fulfill in the meeting - including members of the public who have registered to ask questions.

Seating will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis with those who can't be accommodated able to watch proceedings on screens in nearby committee rooms.