Guildford Borough Council warns of savings to cover £6m pandemic shortfall

Guildford Borough Council has warned it needs to make savings of £6m over the next four years.

The authority says that is the size of the hole the coronavirus pandemic has left in its budget, even after financial support from the government.

It comes as the council leader has warned "brave and innovative decisions" are needed to balance the books.

The shortfall has been blamed on increased spending on emergency support services, financial relief for the borough’s leisure centres, as well as a reduction in income from other services.

Cllr Joss Bigmore, Leader of the Council, said: “Despite financial pressure we were able to support so many people during a very hard time. Bins were still collected, staff made almost 40,000 phone calls to support the most vulnerable members of our community and we provided more than 50,000 hot meals. We redeployed 87 of our staff, issued 6,392 food parcels and paid almost £36million in grants to local businesses.

“The Spectrum, Lido, Ash Manor and GLive were able to re-open because we chose to support them financially. We know that the benefits that these facilities bring to so many people are worth the financial impact that it has.

He added: “We are on course to save £8million through our Future Guildford Transformation Programme. But we now need to save a further £6million over the next four years. This is equivalent to 10% of our spending. We will need to make brave and innovative decisions.”