£35k of £135k cuts in reducing cost of democracy
CHESHIRE East is embarking on a transformation programme to assess and change the way the council operates in a bid to save £100million over the next four years.
The cash-strapped council was recently granted exceptional financial support from the government to the tune of £17.6million.
That money, if used, must be repaid over a 20-year period.
But one of the key requirements is the council has to produce an improvement and transformation plan within six months of acceptance of that financial support.
For Cheshire East, it is August 27 at the latest.
The council itself also requested a Local Government Association peer challenge, so it can learn from similar councils. That will be carried out next week.
Chris Allman, head of neighbourhood services, told a meeting of the corporate policy committee: “The transformation programme will facilitate deeper and broader services.
“We would very much look at to invest in digital technologies to enable the council to fully leverage those.”
Mr Allman said it was also crucial ‘to develop an organisation workforce that’s flexible, to ensure they have the necessary skills in what will be a completely transformed authority and council’.
Because of a lack of staffing capacity – the council is carrying 14 senior staff vacancies – a partner will have to be brought on board to help with the work involved with the transformation programme.
The cost of the programme could be in the region of £450,000.
CHESHIRE East Council has so far achieved just £35,000 of the £135,000 savings it hoped to make by cutting back on the ‘cost of democracy’.
In its 2023/24 budget, the council agreed in February last year to reduce the cost of democracy by £135,000 by taking various measures, including reviewing the number of committees, reducing the use of external venues, freezing councillor allowances and reducing travel and printing costs.
At a meeting of the corporate policy committee, Conservative group leader Janet Clowes said: “Originally it was intended that £135,000 be cut from the cost of democracy.
“How much of that have we achieved, because obviously there have been a lot of other things that have gone through.”
Brian Reed, head of democratic services, said: “My judgement would be that, with the changes suggested and other efficiencies that we’re always looking for, printing and other efficiencies, we’re possibly in the region of the £35,000 element of that.”
In a bid to achieve the forecast savings, councillors did vote to freeze their allowances for 2023/24.
And suggestions such as cutting back on the number of officers who physically attend meetings to reduce time and travel have also been carried out.
Printed agendas have been replaced by digital.
The council also agreed to merge the public rights of way committee with highways and transport to reduce costs.
But members voted against reducing the planning committees from three to two at full council in December – but did not rule out doing it in the future.
And yesterday it was decided the scrutiny committee should also remain in place rather than have its functions incorporated within the relevant service committees.
The role of the council’s scrutiny committee is to scrutinise outside bodies such as the NHS, rather than the council itself.
Coun Clowes said: “In recent years our roles with outward facing bodies has only increased and is continuing to increase and therefore scrutiny must stay.”
The corporate policy committee did agree yesterday that the general licensing sub-committee and Licensing Act sub-committee should be amalgamated to form one sub-committee.