Fear bin collections could be cut to plug £1.5m hole

Gloucester City Council has not ruled out cutting essential services

Services such as bin collections and street cleaning could be cut to plug a £1.5m hole in council finances.

Finance chiefs at Gloucester City Council said it is in a "challenging" position due to having no audited or unaudited accounts dating back from the cyber attack in 2021.

The authority has been relying on manually produced accounting records and finance reports - but an overspend of £1.5m has been discovered by the council's new finance chief.

Council leader Jeremy Hilton said they "need to look at the pros and cons" of where to make savings, adding that while front line services were "the most important" thing to protect, he could not give a 100% guarantee they would not be affected.

The council has agreed to increase parking charges, review the council's fees and charges and review how to make more money while revisiting the business plans of Gloucester Guildhall, the city museum and Blackfriars Priory.

Labour group leader Terry Pullen asked at a meeting on 19 September for a guarantee that essential front line services will not be cut.

He said: "Things like waste and recycling, street cleaning and housing... Those are really essential services, surely we've got to protect them."

Mr Hilton agreed and said while it was their intention to carry on with those service, where the savings might be made is a matter for future decisions.

"We need to make that assessment," he said.

"I can't give you a 100% guarantee, but frontline services are quite clearly the most important thing we run and want to protect."

He added they may be able to provide the same service at a lower cost by re-engineering how they are operated.

"We need to look at the options and the details," he said.

"Quite clearly, we don't want to see the grass [cutting] being cut, and we don't want to see any other services being cut."