Lancashire County Council to approve £65m worth of cuts
Lancashire County Council's leader says the authority may not be able to survive massive government budget cuts.
Lancashire County Council's leader says the authority may not be able to survive massive government budget cuts. The County Council are set to approve £65m worth of budget cuts at a meeting today.
They'll also vote on which services will need to be scrapped to make the savings.
Museums and libraries will have to close and bus services will be cut.
County Council leader Jenny Mein told Rock FM that the cuts were "heartbreaking" and they will have to use £140m of reserves to balance the books for the next two financial years.
The authority is also proposing a 2% rise in council tax for this financial year - but Councillor Mein says the £7.8m raised from this will only cover the government's Living Wage plans which are being brought in.
Councillor Mein says that adult and child social care services will be protected - but other vital services will be scrapped.
LISTEN HERE: You can hear the Rock FM's Amy Scarisbrick's interview with Jenny Mein here:
Finance chiefs at Lancashire County Council have also revealed that the finalised local government finance settlement, announced on Monday, will still leave the council £11m worse off than anticipated, in spite of a £300m transition fund announced by central government.
The provisional figures for Lancashire were published last month and showed a £303.3m reduction in central government support for the county council over the period 2016/17 to 2019/20.
A transition fund announced by central government yesterday will distribute £150m in both 2016-17 and 2017-18 to help councils cope with the phasing out of the government's revenue support grant.
Under the fund, Lancashire County Council will receive £1.108m in 2016/17 and £1.154 m in 2017/18.
However, reductions to other funding, namely the Education Services Grant (ESG), look likely to offset this additional money. The ESG will be reduced by of £1.177m in 2016/17, with a similar reduction expected in 2017/18, although the exact figure is yet to be confirmed.
County Councillor David Borrow, Deputy Leader of the County Council and Cabinet Member for Finance said:
"We have been lobbying central government very hard to try to secure more money for Lancashire. The finalised figures reveal that while some councils have been given more money, particularly county councils in the south, Lancashire's position is no better off."
"This leaves the county council in a very difficult financial position, unprecedented in its severity, and makes it very difficult to maintain the services that people rely on.
"Even before this final announcement, we knew that the council will not have sufficient financial resources to meet its statutory obligations by April 2018, based on current spending levels and demand for services. Over the next two years, the council will need to rely heavily on spending its reserves in order to balance its budget, and that money can only be spent once. And we know we will still have to find a further £200m in savings by 2020/21.
"Our main priority will remain to protect services for the most vulnerable people in society, who cannot get by without the council's support, but even doing that will be ever more challenging in the next few years."