Spending Review: Oxfordshire cuts 'will touch everyone'

Council leader Keith Mitchell said the future cuts would be hard to take

Spending cuts will touch everyone in Oxfordshire, the leader of the county council has warned.

The authority is already planning to cut its budget by £200m (30%) over four years and cut more than 1,000 jobs.

It will get an indication in next week's Spending Review of the cuts it can expect when budgets for councils are announced later in the year.

Council leader Keith Mitchell has warned the whole county will see the effects, including the most vulnerable.

He added: "The county council is the largest employer, it touches everyone in Oxfordshire.

£1bn turnover

"Everyone uses our roads or pavements or travels on subsidised buses.

"Many people have children or grandchildren in schools, older people in social care; many people use museums and libraries, and so it goes on.

"It is a big business, a big spending business and we face quite a difficult financial position as people are beginning to know."

The county council employs 22,000 staff and has a turnover of £1bn.

Mr Mitchell said: "One of our biggest areas is care of the elderly.

"We spend a significant amount of money on that, plus people with disabilities and safeguarding children.

"We are going to have to look at slicing 30% to 35% off of that which will be very, very hard."

The authority said it was looking at working with other partners to maintain as many services as possible.