Powys to axe over 50 jobs
The revelation comes as PCC plans its spending for the next financial year with a £14m budget gap, blaming the cut in funding from the Welsh Government.
It says that up to 50 jobs will have to go, including some teaching posts with the previously untouchable budgets of education and welfare, that account for 70% of PCC’s £247 spending, coming under the microscope for the first time.
The regional authority has admitted that some roads will simply not be fixed and extra charges will be levied on services like cemeteries, garden waste and car parking. Just to rub salt into the wounds, council tax payers can expect a sharp increase.
“We are committed to providing services to Powys residents but continued budget cuts make our task much harder. It is inevitable that council tax will increase at a time when services are reducing,” said Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, Councillor Aled Davies.
“Residents will understandably be dismayed that the council is facing another round of service cuts despite cutting its spending by £100m in that time.
“After a decade of poor budgets we are having to work increasingly hard to identify areas where savings can be made. Officers are going through the same process hunting for more ways to raise income, change the way we deliver services to make savings and unfortunately in some areas reduce or close operations.
“We have to look at everything, the buildings we occupy, back office costs and staffing. We have been streamlining services where we can to combat sustained severe cuts to our funding. But, after a decade of cuts we have reached a point where something has to give, we can no longer fund the council of the past.
“We must continue to deliver important statutory services such as education and social care however they absorb more than 70% of our £247m annual net budget but we must realise that these services will not be immune from reductions.
“As a consequence of high level of spending on statutory services, discretionary services, which include areas such as arts, culture and libraries, which only have a partial statutory element, face the brunt of service cuts. In some parts of the UK some councils are only funding statutory services.”
Budget proposals include:
- School budgets – these continue to experience financial pressures as a result of the teacher’s pay award and increased superannuation costs. This will inevitably lead to further redundancies of teachers and non-teaching staff.
- Job losses - at least 50 full time equivalent jobs are expected to go as most costs are ‘people’ related
- Service reductions – Cuts in funding to planning, building control, environmental health services will reduce the capacity of services leading to delays in approvals and reduced frequency of inspections
- Highways - the state of the extensive road network will deteriorate as maintenance budgets are reduced
- Introducing or increasing charges for some public services (cemeteries, garden waste, car parking etc.)
- Reductions and withdrawal of grant funding to external organisations
- Continued disposal of council assets
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