Front Line Comes First in Three-Year Savings Plan

Earlier this month, my Cabinet agreed savings of over £18 million over the coming three-year period, as a vital contribution to the need for further vast spending reductions in that period in the face of unprecedented cuts to Council funding and rising demand for services.

Once again, protecting the front-line is the priority. Savings are targeted in Borough Hall, not out in the community, as we continue to fight to avoid the service cuts and closures to facilities and services such as libraries, children's centres, leisure centres and weekly bin collections seen eslewhere. This was the topic of my latest 'In Borough Hall' column for the Times and Citizen newspaper. If you haven't seen it, here it is in full:

"This column's title is 'In Borough Hall', but one rule I work by is that rather than being Borough Hall's representative to the community, my job is to be the community's representative at Borough Hall. That means getting out and about around the Borough as much as possible, and it also means focusing savings in Borough Hall in order to protect key services out in the community during this period of unprecedented cuts to council funding. It is why we've slashed senior management costs and council bureaucracy, for example, while avoiding the major cuts to frontline services seen elsewhere such as closures of libraries, leisure centres and children's centres or ending weekly bin collections.

"The latest savings agreed by my Cabinet earlier this month, following extensive public consultation, amounted to over £18 million. These are required to help balance the budget in the face of vast cuts to Council funding and rising demand for services. If the extraordinary squeeze on local authority funding persists as forecast, it will obviously only get much, much tougher to continue to protect the front line and we will continue to do all we can in this effort.

"However, while fighting to save services from day-to-day and week-to-week, we are also planning for the future. A new ten-year contract has safeguarded all of the high quality leisure facilities and delivers £3 million additional investment to improve the sites. The crucial bus station area regeneration is also underway.

"It is only by working together that we have been able to avoid the cuts which have been seen elsewhere, and I'm grateful to all the individuals and groups who took part in the latest savings consultation. Genuine, open consultation on these important matters for our Borough is key to ensuring that we continue to represent the community in the Council, rather than vice-versa."