"Redundancies inevitable" as West Berkshire Council forced to save £17m

THERE will be job losses, spending cuts and council tax rises as West Berkshire Council looks to plug a £17million funding shortfall over the next three years.
The Conservative-controlled council announced this week that it needs to find the sum in order to combat a reduction in funding from central Government.
It aims to find the money through a mixture of new income generation, reducing expenditure, efficiency savings and a two per cent rise in Council Tax in 2013/14.
A report before Tuesday’s Overview and Scrutiny committee, said the amount the council receives from the government in the form of revenue support grants is estimated to be slashed by 19 per cent in 2014/15 and 26 per cent in 2015/16, equating to approximately £5m per annum.
Speaking to the Newbury Weekly News yesterday (Wednesday), the Liberal Democrat leader on West Berkshire Council, Jeff Brooks, blasted the Conservative group for not using council reserves to avoid cutting services.
“Government cuts are inevitable, but it is the way it is being dealt with, reserves should be used to soften the blow.”
He said: “The council has withdrawn funding from the old and the young and still have millions in the bank.
When asked how the council intended to raise additional income and to respond to Mr Brooks’ claims, West Berkshire Council Leader Gordon Lundie warned:”There will inevitaly be redundancies, but rather than making cuts, I want to sit down with parish councils in the coming months and discuss who pays for which service.
“If they can justify significantly enough that the service is vital then we will look at ways in which we can solve it.
“We will be looking at these ways to reduce spending in these areas. It is fine for us to be paying for services when we have a lot of money, but not when we are trying to save.
“For example, is it fair when we need to save money for someone in Newbury to be paying for a public toilet in Lambourn?
“We have around £6.8m worth of reserves against a budget of £120m, which is in line with the National Auditor’s recommendation on 5 per cent of reserves as a minimum credential.
“Keeping some reserves is important. What are we meant to do if one of our schools needs funding for something, turn around and say sorry we can’t?”
In 2010, the council announced it would axe 50 jobs as part of £3million worth of cuts, including more than £200,000 cut from youth services and £91,600 slashed from the A339 detrunking budget.
In 2011, an £8.2m cut to the council’s budget saw the Children and Young People’s directorate cut by more than £1.5m and five local youth club closed. That year, funding for the Watermill Theatre and Corn Exchange was reduced by £140,000, while West Berkshire’s libraries lost out on more than £200,000.
In 2012, the council announced a £9million cut to its budget, affecting services for the elderly and disabled, victims of domestic abuse and the homeless.
But earlier this year the council was criticised for giving away public land in the town centre valued at £3.9m to developers to build housing and offices and a new ‘gateway’ to the town.