Young and old face £30m cuts
More than £30m in cuts to services provided by Nottinghamshire County Council are being proposed in order to save the authority money.
It says it needs to find almost £31m next financial year, most of which will be reinvested for those most in need, such as children, the elderly and the disabled.
The proposed cuts include selling off all 13 of the county council’s care homes, including Woods Court, Newark, and Bishop’s Court, Boughton, over the next two years.
About 475 jobs could go, although the council says many of these were currently vacant anyway. It is hoped the remainder would be lost through staff turnover and voluntary redundancies, with compulsory redundancies kept to a minimum.
Home care charges could increase from £8.80 to £12 an hour, with the maximum weekly charge increasing from £78.50 to £120.
Charges of £4 per day could be introduced for day-care services, although the council says this will still be heavily subsidised.
Nottinghamshire Dial-a-Ride, which the council says is used regularly by only 28 people, would go, saving £364,000 a year.
The price of meals at home is likely to increase from £2.35 to £3.95 and daily transport charges could rise from £2.15 for a return journey to £4.
There is due to be £401,000 less for the council’s youth service.
The Dukeries College, Ollerton, might have to pay some of its out-of-hours services that were previously paid for by the county council.
It was one of only two schools in the county to receive council support and the total saving to the authority from both schools will be £577,000.
Other proposed cuts affecting young people include a £30,000 cut to the work done by the teenage pregnancy team, no more free school uniforms for disadvantaged families, and a £54,000 cut in spending for sports development work in schools.
The council says investments could include an additional £1.7m a year to meet pressure on its children’s social care service, £1.2m for the Building Schools for the Future programme, which includes the Grove School, Balderton, Magnus School, Newark and the Dukeries College, and an extra £800,000 on meeting the increased demand for school transport.
A saving of £50,000 could be made by using smaller salt crystals to grit the county’s roads, while £100,000 could be saved by streamlining the maintenance and monitoring of traffic signals and streetlights without, says the council, affecting road safety.
Holders of residents’ parking permits will have to pay £25 a year for them in future.
Proposed increases in spending include an extra £600,000 on improving drains to reduce the risk of flooding and an extra £100,000 on the upkeep of Newark, Mansfield and Sutton-in-Ashfield bus stations.
The Conservative-led council says it must find almost £85m in savings over the next three years to meet extra demand for its services and balance its budget.
It says it has been forced to make significant cuts due to a reduced grant from the Government and its pledge not to increase council tax.
The budget proposals will be considered on November 18 and final decisions will be made by the council on February 25.
