Residents to 'absolutely notice' service cuts

Councillor Lezley Picton warns 300 jobs could be at risk if saving targets are not met.

Shropshire residents will "absolutely notice" a change to services as the council plans cuts in areas including leisure and waste management to plug a £62m budget gap.

Lezley Picton, leader of Shropshire Council, adds that 300 jobs could be on the line if saving targets are not met.

Plans to reduce the authority's spending include charging for green waste collections, reducing the number of recycling centres, and making cuts to library services.

The earmarked savings, listed in budget proposals for the next financial year, are subject to approval by the full council and in some cases public consultation.

More than 100 proposals are set to be presented to cabinet.

Under plans, the move out of Shirehall, Shropshire Council's head offices, would be accelerated as part of a project to reduce the number of council buildings.

Cultural facilities such as Theatre Severn could become independent.

Ms Picton, Conservative, said the local authority could no longer make the required savings by cutting things that residents would not notice.

"How we go about that is by unfortunately making decisions we never wanted to make," she said.

"Last year the savings we made were very much internalised, I doubt whether many of the public would actually notice those savings. This year, some of the savings they absolutely will notice - it will impact on residents and communities," she said.

More than 1,000 responses have been collected following a six-week consultation programme to gauge early public feedback to budget proposals.

Among the budget saving proposals is an accelerated move from Shirehall in Shrewsbury

So far this year, about £40m has been saved by the council out of a target of £51.4m. However, Ms Picton warned the rising cost of social care, inflation and the county's ageing population meant more savings were required.

She called for the government to do more to help fund social care.

Opposition leaders have also had their say on the cuts.

Lib Dem group leader Roger Evans said: “If the Conservatives do not manage to save that £62m next year, Shropshire will be in trouble.”

Green Party group leader Julian Dean said he felt Shropshire deserved better.

"Years of under-funding by the Conservative Party, plus a cowardly refusal to tackle the funding of social care has led to this position," he added.

'We don't really have any choice'

The council leader told BBC Radio Shropshire: "No councillor signed up to change services and reduce the number of jobs in the authority but we're in a situation now where we don't really have any choice.

"I'm estimating that it will be around 300 full-time equivalent posts [at risk], but we don't know that yet until those reviews are done."

She added: "When councils are spending 75% of their budgets on social care and it continues to rise, I think this year our costs have gone up something like £18m - it's not sustainable.

"[The government] can't keep putting the burden of social care on to local government because at one point I used to talk about it crippling local government, now I'm talking about it killing it."

All proposals will go to the council's cabinet then to full council on 29 February when the budget will be set.

Proposals that would see significant changes in policy would need public consultation first before a final decision was reached, the authority has said.