Lancashire County Council‘s cabinet was today presented with a series of options that could help deliver £176 million in savings by April 2018.

Senior council officers presented a report detailing how services could be delivered in future and how this could enable savings to be made.

In January, the Council, which employs over 34,000 staffannounced it would have to shed some 2500 jobs by April 2016.

Cabinet members are now inviting people’s views on the options, and their priorities for spending, as they consider what to include in their budget proposals, which will be published early next year.

David Borrow, Deputy Leader of the Council, explained: “Cuts imposed by central government and rising demand for many essential services mean that we have to find an unprecedented level of savings.

“By April 2018 we have to reduce the council’s budget by £315 million. This is a very difficult task, given that since 2010 we have already delivered or approved £532 million of savings.

“It is clear that we have to take radical action to achieve those savings. We can do some of that by introducing more intelligent and efficient ways of working. However, it is also clear that we will have to deliver some services in a different way and stop providing some services altogether.

“We are responsible for supporting the most vulnerable people in the county and will do all we can to ensure that they are protected. We are also committed to spending fairly, according to need. But in order to develop our formal budget proposals we really need the people of Lancashire to tell us what is important to them.”

The options presented to cabinet today were drawn up by senior Council officers at the request of the Cabinet, and further options wi! ll be published at the next cabinet meeting in December. The Council’s leadership will present its formal budget proposals in January.

A public consultation to inform the content of those formal budget proposals has been launched today to encourage people across Lancashire to come forward with their views. The consultation will run until 15th December 2014.

To help people do that, a Budget Calculator has been developed on the Lancashire County Council website. It gives an insight into the challenges of setting a balanced budget as any money protected in one area has to be taken out of another.

• You can also view all the documents being presented to council here in PDF or docx format

• Full details of the budget options and the Budget Calculator can be found at: www.lancashire.gov.uk