Lib Dem's promise to reverse cuts and save jobs
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West Berkshire Council’s ruling executive board rubber stamped the proposed full budget for the coming financial year at a meeting on February 9, to be ratified by the full council next week, however the opposition party will propose a series of amendments in an attempt to save jobs and lessen the blow to those affected by the £9 million cut in funding the council has attempted to balance.
The shadow finance spokesman David Rendel (Lib Dem, Thatcham West) said his party believed the council had kept too much spare cash in its reserves and that some of it should be used to save jobs and services, boost the local economy and encourage community cohesion.
Amongst the larger proposals are promises to:
* Freeze the hourly cost of personal care.
* Retain full funding for adult social care transport.
* Reverse the £83,000 cuts in voluntary sector commissioning.
* Retain a residential unit for 12 victims of domestic abuse at a cost of £50,000.
* Re-open six youth clubs and retain staff and funding for the Youth Offending team.
* Reverse cuts in funding to the voluntary sector for after school clubs and pre-school sessions for disabled children.
* Not install parking meters.
* Introducing alternative car parking charges.
The programme is expected to cost an additional £1.147m, and the party has outlined where it would take the money from.
A Government new homes bonus not factored into the council’s proposed budget which would bring an extra £402,000 in would provisionally not be moved to reserves by the Liberal Democrats but would go toward the savings.
Changes to car parking charges, placing an emphasis on charging more for longer stays, would bring in an extra £200,000, an overhaul of Shaw House to make the venue more of a money-spinner as well as more efficiently run, and reduction in cash reserves held by the chief executive of the council.
Among some of the more potentially contentious suggestions are replacing library staff with volunteers to save £37,500, an increase in internet charges in the library, a series of as-yet-unannounced “efficiency saving” to bring in £100,000.
In formulating the budget due before full council on Thursday, March 1, the authority held several consultation exercises with those affected.
A reduction in Government funding over four years means the council must deal with a £25 million cent cut in funding, which translates to a £9 million reduction this year.
It had proposed that £3 million would be staff savings, £2 million from services affecting the vulnerable, and £4 million in cuts to every council department from education to youth to those looking after services such as roads and waste.