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Tough decisions ahead for Flintshire councillors
Published: 12/12/2014
A package of cost saving proposals across a wide range of council services
will be considered by Flintshire County Councils Cabinet on Tuesday 16
December as they battle to find an unprecedented level of £16.4million
annual efficiencies due to a 3.4 per cent reduction in Welsh Government
funding.
The proposed 2015/16 budget builds on the ongoing strategy to reduce management
and internal costs whilst protecting the prioritised and most critical local
services.
Because of the scale of the financial challenge, the Council is proposing more
ambitious plans to make internal efficiencies, redesign management structures
and phased reductions in the number of people it employs.
Many of the budget proposals have no direct public impact but a number of
specific public consultations will follow on some proposals where service users
will be affected.
The overall budgets package of measures and proposals combines:
corporate financing options e.g. how to manage inflation
portfolio level business plan proposals
review of pressures on portfolio budgets
maximising income generation
reviews of workforce numbers and costs
a review of council tax levels
a full review of reserves and balances
Earlier this year the Council launched its ‘Big Budget Conversation’ to raise
awareness of the budget situation and the significant financial challenges it
faced and to gauge the level of public acceptance of some of the difficult
decisions ahead.
People will be able to give their feedback on the budget proposals on the
Councils web site. Subscribers to the Council’s emagazine Your Council will
also receive the budget information in the latest edition. The feedback will
be considered by the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committees during
January. These meetings, which are open to the public ,will be held on:
Corporate Resources Thursday 22 January
Environment Friday 23 January
Housing Friday 23 January
Lifelong Learning Monday 26 January
Social Care & Health Monday 26 January
Start times and agendas will be published on the Councils website seven days
before the date of the meeting.
A final decision on the budget proposals will be made by the full County
Council in February.
Council Leader Aaron Shotton said:
Over the past two years we will already have achieved £22m worth of savings
by reducing management and operating costs and we will continue to look for
further efficiencies in these areas. Local government has proved to be one of
the most innovative and efficient forms of public service in Wales but there
comes a tipping point whereby the sustainability of our services comes into
question. We are now having to prioritise some services over others, reduce or
even stop services. We have put all our services under scrutiny including
education, social services, leisure services, libraries and waste collections.
We will strive to minimise the effect on the front line services but
inevitably there will be an impact in some areas.