2011/12 Council Budget approved

The budget was passed by 27 votes to 18, with two abstentions, two 'no votes' (the Mayor and Deputy Mayor) and two councillors not present.

With severe financial constraints being imposed on all local authorities as a result of the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review, extremely tough decisions have had to be made regarding the Council's spending for the forthcoming financial year.

The Council has done everything in its power to minimise the impact of the budget on front line services, but even tougher decisions will have to be made over the next three years.

Service provision has had to be reduced in some areas, but the huge amount of work carried out on realising efficiency savings has meant that the Council is not stopping any services.

And to help ease the burden on its residents the Council Tax for Southend, already one of the lowest in the country, has been frozen.

To balance its books for the forthcoming financial year the Council has identified £15.489m in efficiencies across its five spending areas including:

• Adult & Community Services - £6.436m
• Children & Learning - £3.362m
• Enterprise , Tourism & the Environment - £3.328m
• Support Services - £1.883m and
• Corporate Policy & Improvement - £0.48m.

Inevitably, having to make such significant efficiencies will result in job losses. A total of 178 posts have been identified as being at risk, but 71 of these are currently vacant. Employees working in the affected areas and the trade unions have been fully briefed.

Despite the immense financial constraints placed on the Council it is pushing forward with a programme of investments which will further improve services and deliver savings in the future.

These include:

• the refurbishment of the Civic Centre, which will realise significant cost savings by leading to the eventual closure of the Council's four other town centre sites
• improvements to the Council's ICT infrastructure to allow more efficient working - such as mobile working, electronic document management and self-service through the website
• the joint replacement of Southend Central Library and the libraries at the University of Essex and South Essex College through the Elmer Square project and
• the £3m enhancement of Southend's world-famous Pier with a brand new cultural centre.

Council Leader Councillor Nigel Holdcroft said: "If the country's financial position was stronger then I would not wish to oversee any reduction in the services we provide, however the reality is that economies must be made.

"I am particularly disappointed that our reduction in funding means that we must also lose jobs at the Council.

"While we have done all we can, to minimise the impact on staff, it would be impossible to deliver economies of this size without a reduction in our workforce.

"Of course this is not the end of the story; we must face several more challenging financial settlements and deliver a further £26.5M of savings by 2015.

"We are starting to work on meeting these savings immediately. This will require determination and innovation if we are to protect and develop those areas which make Southend special and different and why people choose to live here."