Shock as council grant is slashed

From the archive, first published Thursday 2nd Feb 2006.

SHOCKED Worcestershire County Council bosses are faced with more cutbacks on services after hearing the grant from central government is to be slashed by £320,000 over the next two years.

A delegation from the council visited Westminster last month to lobby for additional funding of £3.5m but now bemused leaders are facing further cutbacks.

The Government has cut the county council grant £20,000 this year and £300,000 for 2007. No reason has been given for the reduction and there is no appeal procedure.

The authority had hoped for added funding on top of its £69m grant this year to fill a £3.5m black hole in council finances.

Authority leaders now face the grim reality of making budget cuts of £3.5m over the next year in order to make ends meet.

Cabinet member for finance Coun Adrian Hardman said: "We are all extremely gloomy and disappointed with the outcome. Morale has taken a big dip.

"To think we went down to London to ask for more money. It was an afternoon's work wasted, to be honest."

Cutbacks will include £1.4m on the road maintenance budget for the next year. As outlined in the Worcester News on Saturday, the finances will mean a non-replacement policy for staff working in children's services to save £300,000.

Social care staff will now have to go without office space, instead having to work with laptops on location to save the council a further £600,000.

It will put less waste of landfill sites, reduce money on advertising and dramatically scale down amounts spend on stationery and taxi firms to save another £1.2m.

The original grant allocation was branded as "ridiculous" by the authority. It will now have to make an extra £20,000 savings this year, as well as save an extra £300,000 in 2007.

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