Time running out to have your say on £10.8m council cuts

Public consultation on proposals will end on Monday December 14

TIME is running out for you to have your say on how you could be affected by the far-reaching council cuts to public services planned for next year.

The brutal proposals include plans to cut funding to libraries, children’s centres, care homes, toilets, roads, theatres, CCTV cameras and funding for disabled children.

The public consultation period ends next week and you only have until Monday December 14 to register your comments on West Berkshire Council’s website.

Some of the district’s most vulnerable people are also set to have vital services axed as the Conservative-controlled district council slashes £10.8m from its budget over the next financial year to combat a reduction in central government funding.

Nobody is safe from the 47 individual proposed cuts, which will see £4.6m axed from frontline services in 2016/17.

West Berkshire Council’s leader, Roger Croft, said it was the “worst” set of cuts he could remember – but warned that it was not the end and that council tax could still rise.

Funding for 40 CCTV cameras across the district – including 24 in Newbury and four in Thatcham – could be scrapped from April 2016 unless towns and parishes pay to run them.

Four children’s centres are set to close – at South Newbury, Thatcham (Lower Way), East Downlands, and Calcot – so the council can save £300,000 and create new ‘Family and Wellbeing Delivery Areas’.

The council is also proposing to increase car parking charges in Newbury, Thatcham, Theale and Pangbourne.

More than £500,000 is proposed to be cut from the roads maintenance budget which will see less spent on gully emptying, bridge maintenance, road patching and winter gritting.

Funding for disabled children is also proposed to be cut – a move that would affect eight local charities, including West Berkshire Mencap.

The public toilets at The Wharf and Pembroke Road in Newbury face closure – unless Newbury Town Council stumps up £70,000 – while the Visitor Information Centre could also close.

Four rural bus services are at risk of being terminated and several others could be severely affected – including those from Newbury to Hungerford – as the council looks to cut its public transport budget.

Libraries haven’t escaped either – the council is proposing merging Burghfield and Mortimer libraries and reducing the number of mobile libraries.

Mr Croft said: “This is by far the highest proposed savings I can remember and it is a very difficult thing to do.

“We have to save £10.8m, £6.2m of which we think we can do without it affecting the public and £4.6m that will.

“Council tax rises are not actually deemed to impact the public and that could still come into the mix.

“This is probably going to be the worst year but there are more savings to come. We have to live within our means.

“We don’t actually know how much money we will have next year yet until after the Comprehensive Spending Review and the result of the Care Act funding judicial review. After that we will have a better idea and will be able to set the budget.”

West Berkshire Council’s chief executive, Nick Carter, said it was no longer possible to continue to protect services with the size of the budget cuts.

Newbury Labour have called the proposals “short-sighted”, while the council’s opposition leader, Alan Macro (Lib Dem, Theale), described it as “hitting the district’s most vulnerable the hardest”.

To have your say, visit http://info.westberks.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=31554