Council working hard to protect services

 

 

 

And following the announcement of the Government's grant settlement on Monday it is clear the Council will need to continue making tough decisions to deliver a viable budget for 2011/12.

The authority's settlement for 2011/12 is £64.025million, a reduction of nine per cent, with a settlement for 2012/13 of £58.752million, representing a further six per cent reduction.

However the settlement needs to be examined in further detail over the coming weeks in order to assess its full impact on the authority's spending plans.

The Council now faces the difficult task of deciding where cutbacks and further cost efficiencies will have to be made to enable the authority to balance its books for 2011/12.

Big changes will have to be made across all departments to ensure the Council can deliver even better value for money.

The Council has already implemented significant in-year austerity measures which were imposed by the Coalition Government in the summer.

That led to £1.4m of capital and revenue grant savings being made four months into the financial year, necessitating immediate cuts to a range of grant-aided services.

That led to £1.4m of capital and revenue grant savings being made four months into the financial year, necessitating immediate cuts to a range of grant-aided services.

The swift implementation of these enforced in-year savings enabled the Council to avoid having to make even bigger cuts now that the grant settlement has been announced.

The Council faces a huge challenge ahead to provide services which meet the needs of its estimated 164,200 residents with a much restricted budget but is ready to meet that challenge.

Some of the options under consideration are for services to be delivered by other organisations or provided jointly.

But the Council aims to balance the budget without having to increase Council Tax in the 2011/12 financial year.

The Council's key aims remain:

• to protect key services that work well and add to local people's quality of life
• a clean, green and safe borough
• greater use of online services
• appropriate charges for some non-essential services and
• working with others to serve the best interests of local people

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council Chief Executive, Rob Tinlin, said: "These are unprecedented times for local government finances and like everyone else we will have to manage with the money we have.

"We have no choice but to reduce our spending but we are taking care to develop plans which we believe will be in the long-term interests of everyone who lives or works in the borough.

"We have involved local residents, business and community groups in this process through a number of consultation exercises.

"Council officers are currently analysing the responses to these consultations and they will be taken into account by councillors when they address the Government's funding reductions.

"The preliminary results indicate that residents would least like to see reductions in adult care and waste and recycling services.

"Areas where they have indicated they may be prepared to see reductions include planning, transport-to-school and tourism.

"In addition to seeking our own cost savings we are also asking our contractors and service providers to help shoulder the burden of the austerity measures by playing their part."