Huge changes for our council

SEFTON Council as we know it is about to change forever.

Councillors and officers are currently working through plans to remove £64.4million from the local authority’s budget, and how it looks afterwards will be unrecognisable. It is an astonishing sum to comprehend. To set it in context, there was huge uproar three years ago when the council voted to close seven libraries across Sefton as part of its bid back then to balance the books. The savings from that move? £400,000. At the time, councillors said difficult decisions were being made, but gave assurances that no frontline service would be touched.

No such promises are being given this time, but with the huge deficit in funding from central government how could they?

Areas of service which face cuts in funding this time include looked after children; homeless services; mental health, domestic violence; adult social care; and a whole host of other areas too.

The council will still be there when it needs to be, it still has statutory duties it must meet.

But in other areas there is going to be a huge shift towards helping people to help themselves and their family members - and fostering a greater sense of community and self responsibility.

This could range from anything such as more people picking up their own litter, to Friends groups maintaining the appearance of local parks.

How good do we want where we live to be? After this £64.4m round of cuts, that’s going to be down to us to answer.