Sheffield council's cabinet approves funding cuts plan

Plans for £6.5m of budget cuts at Sheffield City Council have been approved by the authority's cabinet.

The council drew up the plans after a government decision to cut that amount from a grant it pays to the council.

About £3m of the money will come from the Department for Children, Families and Schools.

The proposals were approved by the cabinet on Monday. They will now be considered by the full council at a meeting on Wednesday.

Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough MP David Blunkett met the council's director of children's services on Friday to urge a rethink over the proposed cuts.

Mr Blunkett said he was "appalled" at the level of cuts proposed to the council's education budget and said he hoped to persuade Sonia Sharp there would be "catastrophic consequences" if the plans went ahead.

The proposals include a £1.2m cut to the budgets of both the Connexions advice service and the Local Enterprise Growth Initiative, which helps people start up businesses.

The council is also looking at introducing a pay freeze, unpaid holidays and revised redundancy packages for staff to make longer-term savings.