How the council is to save cash

Calderdale Council says a rise in parking fees and having fewer staff in libraries will help it balance its books.

Cabinet member for resources, Coun Silvia Dacre, said these and halting nonvital spending were all part of the authority’s managing a projected budget deficit for 2023-24.

Opposition group leader Coun Steven Leigh (Con, Ryburn) had asked what sort of actions were being taken.

“Please can you provide examples of the difficult decisions and cost-saving measures that have been made to reduce spending this year,” he said.

Coun Leigh said the second quarter spending moniA tor had reported a £10 million deficit, though Coun Dacre (Lab, Todmorden) said the projected deficit was £6.6 million in the report.

Coun Dacre said examples of difficult decisions being made include increasing parking charges in line with the council’s parking strategy.

“This is a difficult decision as it would have been politically easier not to do this, as it is an unpopular decision with opposition parties and some residents and businesses.

“A second example is running the library service with vacancies.

“This is difficult as it can mean occasional unplanned closure of libraries – you cannot run a library with one member of staff only, and this undermines our commitment to our priority of thriving towns and places, and of course increases the pressure on staff,” she said.

Coun Dacre said it was likely other difficult decisions would include possible further use of the council’s reserves, freezing of noncritical spending on filling vacancies and deferring planned spending that otherwise might have taken place at an earlier date.

Recently councillors heard Calderdale will need to trim millions of pounds from its budget in coming years to balance the books, if financial settlements do not change.

Calderdale Council is also bracing itself for around £11 million worth of cuts which will likely have to be made to its budget next year, 2024-25.

Much overspending arises from increasing demand for, and cost of, care packages for adults and children, which councils legally have to provide to people needing them.