Coronavirus: Oxfordshire County Council to cut £15m

Council leader Ian Hudspeth said he "continues to lobby government" for further financial help

A council will make emergency cuts of £15m to deal with losses incurred because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Oxfordshire County Council said it has lost £51m since March but had received £31m in government support.

It said it had increased spending on adult social care, emergency planning and keeping schools open, while income from car parking and cultural services had been "severely damaged".

The government said it had provided councils with £4.3bn of funding.

Council leader Ian Hudspeth said the authority would be "protecting frontline services".

He added: "I continue to lobby government and point out the money we have spent and that they did actually suggest that they would be providing all the funding [to deal with the pandemic].

"However, we've got to balance the books. We've got to make these tough decisions because what we can't be doing at the end of the year is scrabbling around trying to make sure we hit a balanced budget."

Post unfilled

The council plans to cut about £4.2m from its social care budget and a further £3.7m in its children's, education and families department. It hopes to save £488,000 by using remote working.

It also wants to save £1.1m on public health, by offering a "reduced" sexual health service and a "minimal service" providing NHS Health checks.

It will look to save a further £1.4m on community operations and another £442,000 from its place and growth department. That includes delaying £25,000 work on improving air quality.

Further savings worth a total of £3.7m will be made from its customers and organisational development, community safety and commercial development and investments departments.

All departments are expected to leave vacant posts unfilled this financial year.

A plan to plug the spending gap will be formally signed off on 18 August.