(Updated 27/2/09, redundancy cost figure corrected): Public toilets, The Dukes, Salt Ayre Leisure Centre and Citizens Advice all face massive cuts in their budget as Lancaster City Council struggles to balance its finances to keep the council tax down and find £1.7 million of savings from its budget.
In addition, virtual-lancaster has learnt that thousands of pounds have been earmarked for potential redundancy payouts — and despite making savings this year, the Council may have to find up to £2 million in savings next year.
The City Cabinet voted in favour of the following cuts this week, citing that the decisions were taken in the context of the Council’s budget position and the need to make ongoing savings and achieve value for money, as well as proposed priorities and the impact on service users.
• CLOSED With the exception of Bull Beck, 13 public toilets are to be ‘mothballed’ with effect from 1st April 2009 (See news story). A ‘Community Toilet’ scheme will be put in place from April 2009 and £20,000 has been allocated to this in 2009/10.
• GONE Heysham Heritage Centre
• GONE Lancaster’s “Twinning Association” with other towns had its full budget cut
• CUT Salt Ayre Leisure Centre is to have its budget cut by 10%, saving £119,000, with a demand for additional energy savings. Expect higher charges to be on the cards in future. The cuts could mean the centre may have to close on certain days.
• CUT £20,000 slashed from the budget of Lancaster and Morecambe Citizens Advice Bureau, just when local people need them more than ever as redundancy and other “credit crunch” issues bite
• CUT £40,000 from The Dukes budget – proposed higher cuts by Coun Roger Mace of some £75,000 were rejected
• CUT £10,000 from LUDUS Dance – Britain’s leading dance in education company
• CUT £3,900 from the Community Volunteer Service budget
• CUT Floral decorations at Civic ceremonies – saving £2,300 a year
• CUT Countryside Projects – by £3000
• CUT Arnside and Silverdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty projects – by £2,500
• CUT Morecambe Music Residency – by £1,400
• CUT Forest of Bowland AONB – by £1000
• CUT Community Projects – by £1000
• CUT The Shopmobility service – by £1000
• SAVED Carnforth, Heysham and Hornby Community Pools – but Council will look at increases in charges
• SAVED Lancaster Fireworks Festival in November, now part of wider ‘celebrations’ to mark the Lancaster Town Hall Centenary, which will include paid Town Hall tours and a Mayor’s Ball
• SAVED Budgets for the Storey Institute and the Lancaster Literature Festival remain unchanged
• SAVED Morecambe Town Hall and Dalton Square flower beds
Reaction to the plans has been mixed but, so far, largely negative. Cyclists have already condemned the closure of public toilets, pointing out the problems they will have with the “Community Toilet” scheme. “I can’t take my bike into a pub with me if I need the loo!” one stormed.
The Dukes received £260,700 from the Arts Council and £175,564 from Lancashire County Council this year. The Lancaster Guardian reports that after the meeting Dukes director, Joe Sumsion, said he recognised the council’s difficult position but was “disappointed”.
“There will be things we will not be able to do,” he told the paper. “It shouldn’t stop us doing what we do now but it will impact on growth and stop us reaching more people.”
Beyond Cabinet, councillors have also criticised the cuts, suggesting saving could have been made elsewhere apart from those services savaged in this latest round of savings. One pointed to the Council’s legal department, which regularly has to refer to County Council’s legal department, and suggested the City Council could have cut it and tendered legal services from County instead.
Other councillors have expressed concern at the high costs agreed at setting up a Morecambe Council at a time when cuts are being made in other areas.
• Full council will meet on 4th March where the cuts and budget changes will be finalised. The County Council will decide its funding levels for bodies such as The Dukes, which it co-funds with other organisations, on 19 March.
On Wednesday 3 March Coun Roger Mace sent virtual-lancaster this response from local Conservatives to the proposals, which we reprint here in full:
“Wages and salaries paid for by Council Tax are such a high proportion of the Council’s total expenditure that we kid ourselves if we pretend we can make significant financial cuts without also causing significant job losses. The total General Fund employee cost for 2009-10, is estimated to be £21.8m – 91% of the Net Revenue Budget of £24m.
In this week’s budget, a restructuring reserve is being created of nearly £1m to be used for redundancy payments and for paying compensation to encourage early retirements. Instead of paying for services, the taxpayers of this District will be paying for some of the City’s current employees NOT to work to provide the services we regard as part of the fabric of local life.
How much more sensible it would have been if we had been able to take full advantage of natural staff turnover. Alas the Conservative plan to do this – which was supported by all Group Leaders in October – has not been given full support in Cabinet. If only a few jobs had been removed from the City Council’s establishment each month by failing to fill casual vacancies when they arose, each such job would have been one less job that may have to be removed by making a post holder redundant. Removing a job from a list of vacancies is essentially a paper exercise. It demonstrates concern for the Council’s REAL employees, their families, their pensions, their mortgages and their savings. It is very different from bringing an end to the existing career of an actual person, whose livelihood the job currently provides.
The budget as recommended to Council is a penny pinching one. Curiously generous in providing for expenditure to pay people to stop providing the Council’s services (redundancy, early retirement etc.) – but penny pinching in its treatment of minor expenditures on popular services to our communities.
In summary, the Conservative budget strategy would tackle the present crisis and any future budget by
(1) Using natural staff turnover to gradually reduce expenditure to within affordable limits and keep it there
(2) Reducing unproductive spending
(3) Concentrating on front-line services
(4) Taking steps to ensure that fairness to all local communities was restored, and once restored, was upheld.
Conservatives have contributed to some elements in the current budget and opposed others – like the closure of public toilets – but the philosophy behind this budget is not a Conservative one.
Last month, Council members decided upon a 4% rise in the City’s Council Tax. That was before they had any idea of the cuts that would be necessary to achieve it – and before they knew whether the level of cuts would be more – or less – than an acceptable change in the provision of Council services.
If it had been clear that planned expenditure could have been reduced without damaging local front-line services, we would have argued for a Council Tax increase lower than 4%. An increase of 2.5% would have been an improvement, but a zero increase would have been even better.”
J. R. Mace
[Based on the speech to be made at Budget Council on 4 March 2009
by Cllr. J. R. Mace, Leader of the Conservative Group, Lancaster City Council]