£60M CUTS WHICH SAY AUSTERITY IS NOT OVER
City Council tax to rise by 3.95% £20m to go from social care budget 100 local authority jobs to go Recycling centre to close Library hours to be slashed
PLANS for a 3.95% council tax hike and £60m of budget cuts have been confirmed by council chiefs in Newcastle.
The latest round of cuts at the Civic Centre will result in disabled drivers being made to pay for parking, the city’s social care services losing more than £20m by 2022 and 100 local authority jobs disappearing.
Newly released documents show that Newcastle City Council is also set to press ahead with other service reductions, such as reducing the opening hours of the City Library and closing the Brunswick Household Waste Recycling Centre in 2020/21.
Since putting its draft proposals out to public consultation in November, the council has found an additional £1.6m, largely through increased income from business rates. That cash will be spent on a range of projects, including a campaign to tackle fly-tipping and installing defibrillators around the city.
The first £20m of the cuts will be made in the next financial year, when 40 council jobs are expected to go.
By 2022, the council will have been forced to cut £327m from its budget in 12 years.
More than 3,500 people took part in the 12-week long budget consultation, with the council receiving 716 individual pieces of feedback and 334 people completing an online budget simulator.
The issue of car parking attracted the most comments during the consultation – with the council planning to force disabled Blue Badge holders to pay for parking in council-run multi-storeys and off-street car parks, as well as shutting the Grainger Town multi-storey overnight.
According to a council report, many respondents felt the Blue Badge proposal will “disproportionately affect people who are already disadvantaged” and that Newcastle would get “a reputation for being unfriendly to disabled people”.
However, the authority has agreed to reduce the Shopmobility service from six to four days a week, rather than the originally proposed three.
The City Library will close at 5pm three days per week and not open on Sundays – just one part of £1.7m cuts to the library service in the coming years, which will see staffing reduced and the East End Library moved to the Shields Road Customer Service Centre. The final budget proposal must now be agreed by the council’s cabinet on Monday, and will then be debated and formally set by city council on March 6.
The council will also begin enforcing a policy to charge residents for replacement wheelie bins.
Labour leader of Newcastle City Council Nick Forbes said: “Although the Government has announced that austerity is over there is no sign of it in local Government.
“Since 2010 almost £2,500 per household has been drained from the city and the council now has to save another £60m over the next three years.
“In order to soften the impact, we’ve launched a conversation to look three years into the future. In the past it’s helped us save many of our cherished facilities so we’re appealing again to our partners and communities to pull together. Fairness and a sense of duty to protect the most vulnerable is what drives our city.
“Despite the challenges, we continue to provide quality services when councils in other regions have literally gone bust.
“The £1.6m we have earmarked for a range of projects is intended to protect the most vulnerable while we do everything we can to grow the city’s economy.
The council has confirmed it will increase council tax by 2.95% and apply the Government’s 1% precept for adult social care – resulting in a total increase of £1.20 per week on a band-D property.
Newcastle Liberal Democrat leader Anita Lower said: “They have found this £1.6m, but it is going on lots of small projects that may or may not have an impact.”