Peterborough Cuts
1 November 2010, 06:00
Peterborough City Council has outlined how it plans to save money following the government's spending review.
It's thought the authority's budget will be cut by around 11%, or £65 million over the next five years.
Up to 181 jobs will be cut at the council to cover some of the savings needed.
However, it's thought that number will be lower when posts that are already vacant are taken into account.
Another idea is to replace the bulbs in Peterborough's 24,000 street lights with more energy efficient ones to save on electricity bills.
The authority also says it will:
- Reduce the amount of money it spends on private consultants
- Outsource services like rubbish collection, street cleaning and travellers site management to private companies
- Sell some of it's buildings and rent out unused office space
- Increase fees and charges, such as charging for wheelie bins, charge staff to park, charge for adult social care services and some recreation services
- Not increase council tax for the 2011/2012 year, however there will be rises of around 2.5% during each of the following two years
Councillor David Seaton, cabinet member for resources, said: "This is a comprehensive document setting out, as far as is possible, the Cabinet’s proposals to meet a challenging Spending Review announcement by Government.
The council will not know the total impact of all the Government’s announcements until the Local Government Finance Settlement in December.
However, rather than wait for these announcements, the Cabinet has put together its proposals to meet the budget challenge a month earlier than it usually would.
By doing this, we want to give all our residents, staff, partner organisations, businesses and other interested parties the chance to read and digest all of the savings, efficiencies, service reductions.
In addition, we want them to understand the investments we are proposing to make in the city to enable us to continue to grow and give residents the best quality of life.
We want to be open, transparent and inclusive and give people a chance to put forward their suggestions and ideas."
The proposals will be presented to the Peterborough City Council cabinet for consideration on the 8th November.