New budget consultation begins

Councillor Richard Farnell

Consultation on how Rochdale Borough Council proposes to make savings to meet the Government’s spending reduction targets has begun.

The council needs to save an estimated £37million between 2016 and 2018.

The savings are the latest that need to be made after the continuing reduction in the amount of money the Government gives to councils. Rochdale Borough Council has already reduced its planned spending by £143 million over the past five years.

The consultation will run for a minimum of 45 days and is due to end on 8 January 2016. The overall financial position will be reviewed after details of the council’s provisional finance settlement from central Government are received in December.

Following the end of consultation, all feedback will be reviewed before the council’s Cabinet committee make its final decisions on the savings on 28 January 2016. Final decisions on the overall budget will be made at the Budget Fixing Council meeting at Rochdale Town Hall on 24 February 2016.

Councillor Richard Farnell, Leader of Rochdale Borough Council, said: “We have no option but to propose these savings as they are a direct consequence to the national Government’s huge cuts in its support grant to Rochdale.

“All other public services are in the same position - we have significantly less money and at the same time we have an increased demand for our services. Our priority is to protect essential, front-line services as much as possible. But with this level of Government cuts, some services will inevitably be hit.

“We are working hard to minimise the impact the cuts will have on those critical services we provide for children, the elderly, disabled and most vulnerable, as we have done for the past five years, We are also rigorously pursuing efficiency savings, cutting back on waste and bureaucracy and looking at new and different ways of doing things to save money. I said when I became leader 18 months ago that the cuts start at the top, not the bottom. More than half of senior posts have been axed since 2010.

“However, the scale of the cuts to our budget from the Government means there are extremely difficult decisions to be made. I hope people respond to this important consultation and tell us what their priorities are before final decisions are made next year. We will look carefully at each and every suggestion made.”

Details of the savings proposals can be viewed on the council’s website at:

www.rochdale.gov.uk/savings