Leicestershire faces £9.9m budget cuts and job losses

Staff at Leicestershire County Council are facing job cuts and front line services will be hit as the authority looks to make £9.9m of budget savings.

Child care, teenage pregnancy advice and vulnerable people's services are under threat.

Officials at the authority have to find the savings after the government made significant grant reductions.

The council said the full implications of the staff reductions "could not be quantified at present".

A council cabinet document describes it as "early days" and said consultations would be necessary.

Cut completely

The document adds: "However, it is likely that the reduction will have implications for front line services and staff reductions will have to be made which cannot be quantified at present."

One grant for children and young people's services looks set to be cut by £2.6m - an effective 24% reduction.

A £300,000 grant for the supporting people administration could be cut completely.

A decision on how this will affect services is set to be made by the county's Vulnerable People's Partnership.

Road safety and other transport initiatives are facing cuts along with the loss of £200,000 earmarked for future planning.

No-one was available from the public sector union Unison to comment on the announcement.

'Mitigate impacts'

Leicestershire County Council leader David Parsons said: "I want to be honest with the people of Leicestershire. These cuts to direct grants are much more than we had expected and will undoubtedly hit frontline services.

"They have been imposed on us by the government.

"We have no alternative, as this is direct grant, to pass this on to the people of Leicestershire but we do it with a very heavy heart.

"At a time we will be facing huge cuts, we ought to be honest with the people of Leicestershire and say what is happening and we will in due course say how we can perhaps mitigate the worst impacts of what is going on."