West Berkshire Council unveils budget plans
Council Tax frozen, leisure and car parking charges up, job losses part of "realistic savings package"
WEST Berkshire Council has announced details of its budget for the coming year which includes a £9 million cut across services, jobs and funding to vulnerable groups.
The leader of the council, Graham Jones (Con, Lambourn), said the gloomy national and international outlook was putting increasing pressure on local governments to keep costs down and tighten spending.
The council must look to save £25 million over four years due to a reduction in funding from central Government.
Of the £9 million axed from the budget £2 million was due to come from groups aiding vulnerable people, and during an extensive consultation exercise groups such as Mencap and the West Berkshire Disability Alliance implored the council to rethink its stance.
People power did win out in the case of the West Berkshire Citizens Advice Bureau, which will now not suffer a £13,000 reduction in funding, and the reduction of grants to Partners for Active Leisure Schemes West Berkshire (PALS), A2 Dominion West Berkshire Domestic Abuse Service, Dingley Family and Play Therapy Group, Newbury, Crossroads Care, Newbury,and West Berkshire Mencap is to be phased over two years.
Upper management council staff were targeted as part of a £3 million cull of its own workforce which has resulted in the loss of 47 jobs.
In recent weeks opposition councillors have criticised the council's decision to hold back the the finer details of a swathe of £4 million cuts to services, and little more information has been released ahead Thursday when the papers are put into the public domain.
To balance the books there will be an increase in charges to dispose of bulky household waste, an increase in parking charges, the introduction of a £1 Sunday and evening parking charge in Newbury, an increase in charges for hall hire at leisure and community centres, pitch hire and admission fees, although the council said the fees will remain competitive when compared to neighbouring counties.
Despite anger from groups representing disabled people that cuts to their services had effectively paid for the Council Tax freeze, the council has again decided to cap the rate for a second consecutive year.
In terms of spending, the council has said it is determined to continue to plough money into schools and infrastructure, and the promotion of community savings and loans schemes.
Mr Jones said yesterday (Monday): "This is a budget of responsibility and renewal, which is particularly important when we are in the climate where it is important to balance the books, keep costs down and spend properly.
"Despite the austerity packages the national debt is still growing and the cost of adult social care is still climbing.
"Last year the task of balancing this looked even more daunting, and every year the community care budget is growing and will keep growing.
"We have tried to maintain the things everyone relies on, such as roads and regular waste collections, and we are helping people to help themselves."
For more on this story see this week's Newbury Weekly News.