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by Lib Dem team on 13 July, 2010
This relates to the in-year savings of £6.5 million the Government has asked Stockport Council to find, as our part of sorting out the economic mess the country finds itself in.
Stockport Council press release:
Stockport’s Executive agreed on Monday (12th July) to share collective responsibility for the savings across a wide range of activities so that no single service or group of people is affected too much.
The bulk of the savings is being found by cutting back on revenue and capital expenditure planned for later this year; it was also agreed to make a contribution from Council’s reserves. In addition, the Council and partner organisations had to revise their spending programme to reflect the loss of special Performance Reward Grant.
Specific reductions within the £6.5m agreed at the Executive include:
* saving £70,000 on senior management costs in the Children and Young People’s Directorate
* saving £60,000 from a £200,000 campaign for carbon reduction
* saving £100,000 by reducing training, publicity and printing within Children and Young People’s Services
* revising a £50,000 campaign to tackle vacant shops to now spend only £25,000
* saving more than £100,000 by scaling back a programme of traffic calming, pedestrian and cycle ways in the borough
Council leader Councillor Dave Goddard told the Executive: “We have to save £6.5 million this financial year. This is about sharing collective responsibilities to deliver the most important priorities for the borough. All services will be affected to some extent but we are protecting frontline services as much as we can. These are decisions for the times we are facing, everyone is being affected by the national financial position and Stockport is no exception.
“At the heart of our approach lies our commitment to improve all our communities by building on Stockport’s position as one of the best-run Councils in the country. Partnership working is a strong point in Stockport, and we are pleased that our partners agree with us that this is the best way forward,” Cllr Goddard said.
Councillor Sue Derbyshire, Executive Member for Finance, added: “These are decisions for the times we are facing. The role of councils is changing and we have to respond to that. It is with deep regret that we have to deal with these savings in-year.
“However the financial situation found by the current government has led to this result. We have and will continue to make representations to government about the need to protect local services, especially to the most vulnerable. Plans had been in train for some time to identify savings that were inevitably going to be needed in future years and those plans assisted in forming these recommendations.”
Looking further ahead, the Council expects to face significant reductions in government grants over the next four years and is carrying out a thorough review of all its services and budgets to identify where the necessary savings can best be found. The Council knows it will have to employ fewer people in the future, but says the introduction of compulsory redundancies will be the last resort.
4 Comments
Iain another saving might be to only accept an increase in the police “levy” in line with inflation. We appear to get little enough value as it is, without above inflation rises to rub our noses in it!!
The police levy is set by the police, not by the Council. I disagree with you on the value of the police, who I think do a good job in our area, but that’s probably a debate for another time.
Iain, why not scrap the entire budget for traffic calming, pedestrian and cycle ways for the year. I would much sooner wait a year for something like this than cut corners elsewhere.
Peter – interesting point. My personal view is not to do that.
As household budgets tighten, many people will be able to save a lot of money if they can cycle or walk more and drive less (both my wife and I now cycle our four mile journeys to work and back and save hundreds of pounds a year on petrol as a result).
Cycling isn’t for everyone, for lots of reasons, but there are plenty of people who could and would cycle if they felt a bit safer. The cost of cycle lanes is tiny compared to, say, new roads and I think it’s worth carrying on with if we can.