WARRINGTON’s finance chief has blamed sweeping national government cuts for the borough council needing to make cuts of nearly £14 million in the coming financial year.
Executive member for finance and corporate resources Peter Carey says the government cuts are the single biggest factory contributing to the council’s position.
He is currently preparing to set out the detail of the council’s proposed budget for 2012-2013.
Cllr Carey (pictured) said: “With a decrease in funding from central government which equates to £24 less per person for everyone in the borough next year, there is no magic wand we can wave to protect Warrington from some of these cuts.
“We are setting out a budget that shows our commitment to protecting frontline services as far as possible, supporting the most vulnerable members of our communities and supporting growth in our local economy.
“But the grim reality is that we face the prospect of having to reduce or change some of the services that we know people rely on.”
Commenting on some of the specific proposals contained in the budget plans for this year, Cllr Carey said: “We’ve tried to be as creative as possible, looking at different ways to deliver services like adoption and youth offending by joining up with other councils in the area, or for day care and support for disabled people to work with other providers who can help us to continue to provide critical support to those in need.
“And at a time of unprecedented economic hardship for many working families, we’re determined to get our own house in order, by reviewing and redesigning services to eliminate waste, drive down the costs of our support services and getting the best price for the goods we have to buy.
“But the reality is that with escalating costs and increasing demand for services, we have had to face up to some unpalatable options.
“However, we gave a commitment to listen to the views that were expressed as part of our wide-ranging budget consultation and we have listened. Some of the proposals that we had outlined provoked significant debate and we will take all the feedback on board as we start to consider the detail of next year’s budget.
“Of course, with such a sizeable reduction in our budget, there will be an impact on our staff. We’re talking to staff about how we’ll do everything we can to minimise any job losses, encouraging people to explore voluntary redundancies, redeployment and training opportunities so that we can mitigate against the need for compulsory redundancies. And we’re committed to keeping staff informed and involved in this process to try and minimise the uncertainty.”
Cllr Carey concluded: “In Warrington, we’re only now seeing the real impact of the cuts starting to bite – cuts that are being made at a national level in funding for councils; in programmes to help people find work; in support for young and old people alike; and it’s a clear sign that this government is cutting too far and too fast.
“We will do everything we can to help those people most in need, while maintaining vital high-quality services, but it’s a wicked shame that cuts in funding will prevent us doing more.”
All responses received during the January consultation have been collated and will be considered by councillors when they debate the budget for next year at the Executive Board meeting on February 13.
The final budget will be presented to full council on Monday March 5.
Government to blame – finance chief
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Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
11 Comments
With Such massive cuts are on the way, why are you wasting our pubic money
Spending £147,000 on tidying a park for the Olympic torch? Without any consultation?
It may only be a drop in the ocean but all monies should
Be looked at in theses financial times, I walk through the park regular,
And it’s lovely with the work the community pay back team has put in.
Come on Warrington stop wasting money on short events we can’t afford it.
That would be the previous Labour Government that is to blame then, by spending money that the UK did not have and running up debts that it cannot afford to pay back. On top of which the current UK government, try as it might, is, I understand, struggling to control the annual deficit, as a result of which the level of debt continues to grow. As I recall it now exceeds £1 trillion and that the total UK debt could well be in excess of £7 trillion. Alas the UK and indeed most other countries have been living high on the hog for far too long and economic reality has come home to haunt them and future generations. Good luck, you’ll need it.
Come come Cllr Carey even Ed Balls that famous bean counter for New Labour has at last admitted a Labour Government, had one been returned at the last general election, would have been forced to match, if not exceed, the cuts the Con/Lib coalition has been compelled to introduce. As Our Man from Oman observes the level of cuts we are all having to endure stem from the profiglacy of Tony Blair and latterly Gordon (prudence) Brown.
Taxpayer has rightly said you should also start looking after the pennies in Warrington and the pounds might just begin to look after themselves. Unwarranted rises to the CEO and other senior officers, £147,000 for our 15 minutes of fame from the flame, mismanagement of assets in failing to collect rent arrears, £250,000 shortfall on parking to add to last year’s of £130,000. They may not seem significant in isolation but collectively they all add up.
And of course there is always plenty of money in the pot for executive to take massive pay rises, isn’t there Councillor Carey?
Alternatively you could use the powers of The Localism Bill to reverse last year’s wholly inappropriate pay rises.
Well they have found £100k and more to re-vamp Bank Park from somewhere, so they are clearly not short of money.
I wish people would start getting real about our town and be proud of what we have here instead of always knocking any good work that is done and constantly being negative towards good natured ambitious plans , life can be hard enough for most people but please please stop the negative attitudes you are not helping warrington town or it’s residence
You think so do you Councillor Higgins? What is good natured about cutting front line services while increasing executive pay by 9 per cent?
Oh dear, which residence have you selected for us to be positive about? I hope it is mine.
As you say Cllr Higgins life can be and is hard enough for all of us. It is not made any easier when a long term mismanaged malfunctioning organisation, which has a significant impact on our lives, continues to bumble along heedlessly without any attempt at addressing any of its obvious and malfunctioning shortcomings. Any negativity that may exists comes overwhelmingly from the reluctance of those who are able to put matters right, failing to do so, whilst casting around to blame others for a situation over which they have greater control.
Unbelievable how negative and stupid people are on this website. It covers the news really well then the morons start spouting about how poor the last Labour government was. Its only gone downhill since the torys got in and I have been made redundant twice since they did. Never under a Labour government. Also people need to start seeing this town for what it is. Moving forward and changing for the better. You stand still and you get left behind. Maybe you should all move to Runcorn. You will find plenty to moan about there.
…or we could just try to change the town we live in for the better. The council has structural failings that councillors are refusing to address, not least the complete lack of accountability of officers who lurch from one scandal to the next. Unless you think we should all just shut up, tug our forleocks and watch as the town falls apart under the watch of people who are more concerned with increasing their own income than delivering services.