Review finds £1m for Leicester front-line services

Leicester City Council has said it has found £1m of extra savings which can be reinvested in services.

The city council had already proposed savings of £28m for the coming year, with £82m in cuts expected by 2015.

But the ruling Labour group said a fresh review of spending had saved on budgets for furniture, parking, conferences and advertising.

This would help protect museums like Jewry Wall, bus subsidies and some crime initiatives, it said.

Former leader council leader Ross Wilmot said backbench Labour councillors had put new savings ideas to the cabinet.

Conference 'moratorium'

They included cutting about £300,000 from both the conference and furniture budgets.

The money will be spent on reversing cuts to areas including the Anti-Social Behaviour Unit, the Care and Repair service and charges for the New Walk Museum.

Mr Wilmot said: "I am afraid the cabinet has not looked hard enough at the budgets in the council. When your back is to the wall you have to start looking at everything.

"Our promise as a Labour group was to protect front-line services and that means we should have a moratorium on things like people going to conferences.

"It is a pity we were not listened to earlier but I am really pleased the leadership of the group has accepted our proposals."

Council and Labour group leader, councillor Veejay Patel, said: "The reason we put the original proposals out for consultation was to gauge what people thought of them.

"The choices we are making are tough ones and we always knew they would change as we moved through the consultation period."

Mr Wilmot said the group hoped to identify more savings from other back room budgets.