Council plans £33m cuts it 'does not want to make'

Seniors councillors at County Hall say they are "facing difficult decisions"

Norfolk County Council is planning more than £33m of cuts as it tries to balance its budget.

Almost half of the savings would come from adult social services, with the authority looking to save money by cutting spending on care home places.

Children’s services would face cuts of £7m, while other proposed savings would include turning off some streetlights – and council tax could also rise by more than 5%.

Deputy leader Andrew Jamieson said the Conservative-run council had "identified a number of savings which we do not want to make".

Deputy leader Andrew Jamieson says demand on the council's services "continues to increase"

"But we have no choice under the present financial circumstances while we await forthcoming financial settlements from the government,” he added.

"The financial challenges faced by local councils cannot be understated."

The council has an annual budget of nearly £2bn for 2024-25 and has warned of a gap in its finances of £44.75m.

In a paper prepared for the council’s cabinet, £33.55m of cuts are proposed, with £16.5m of that coming from adult social care.

The report suggests savings could be made by “promoting independence strategies… for older people”.

Smaller cutbacks would include turning off 2% of council-run streetlights to save £200,000, with another £200,000 saved by reducing spending on library materials such as books.

Council tax is also likely to go up with the report suggesting three possible options - an increase of 3%, an increase of up to 5% or an increase of more than 5%.

Labour's Steve Morphew says the proposals have "hardly any details" on where cuts would be made

Steve Morphew, leader of the council’s Labour group, accused the council of overseeing "managed decline" of its services.

"Despite proposing massive eye-watering cuts to budgets for adult social care and children's services, there are hardly any details of where cuts will come," he said.

"How can they publish numbers of that magnitude without coming clean?"

Members of the council’s cabinet are due to discuss the proposals on Monday 7 October.