Libraries, care homes and 1,600 council jobs facing the axe

LIBRARIES, children's centres and care homes will be among the casualties as part of the biggest wave of cuts to public services in Derbyshire's history.

A total of 1,600 council jobs will go, says Labour-led Derbyshire County Council, which must shed a third of its £500 million budget.

Under new proposals, elderly and vulnerable people will be charged more for care services, while fewer will qualify for support. Grants to the voluntary sector will be slashed and subsidised transport for pupils at faith schools is also set for the axe.

Leader Anne Western said public consultations would help decide which libraries and centres would close.

Tory opposition leader Andrew Lewer said Labour had made the situation worse in recent months by "spending money that isn't there".

Derbyshire County Council has announced how it plans to save £157 million – a third of its budget – over the next four years. Paul Whyatt reports.

A SIMPLE graphic at County Hall yesterday painted the bleakest of pictures.

A dark, gloomy column reading "£157M CUTS" stated the amount that must be saved by 2017-18, due to the Government's austerity measures.

Alongside it, six other columns revealed the annual cost of selected services.

The last one showed the cost of Derbyshire's library service and trading standards department is £12.5 million.

It helped put the scale of the cuts into context – even if Derbyshire's 45 libraries were to close today, the council would still be a long way short of making the savings it needs to.

Speaking at a press conference at County Hall yesterday, leader Anne Western said some painful cuts were on the way.

She said: "This is an impossible situation forced upon us by the Coalition Government.

"We are faced with making devastating cuts to our services. It will have a very significant and detrimental impact on vulnerable people and on the local economy."

Here is how Mrs Western said her Labour group planned to save £157 million:

JOBS

Around 1,600 jobs would be axed – 10% of the council's workforce. The figures do not include schools, which are funded separately to other council services and will play no part in the £157 million of cuts that are to be made.

Chief executive Ian Stephenson said: "Since 2010, we've reduced our workforce by around 1,200 jobs. Now, a further 1,600 full-time and part-time posts need to go.

"We will continue to try and manage these reductions through voluntary redundancies and early retirements, but it's going to be increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to avoid making compulsory redundancies.

"As part of this, we will be looking at restructuring the senior management team and removing layers of management.

"We have also been speaking to Nottinghamshire County Council with a view of pulling our resources together to save on costs."

ADULT CARE SERVICES

The council has previously announced that many of its 27 care homes will close. This remains the case but a new public consultation will be carried out soon to determine which ones will stay open.

Meanwhile, the council's Fair Access to Care Services scheme – a system for deciding how much support people get – will be altered so that fewer people qualify for help. Mrs Western said the eligibility criteria will be changed from "higher moderate" to "substantial".

Clients will be asked to pay more for home care services, while fewer people will be made eligible to benefit from various transport services.

Grants to the voluntary sector will be cut, as will the council's Housing Related Support budget, which currently stands at £14 million and helps homeless people.

Day Care services will also be affected. Despite this, Mrs Western said the council planned to "improve" the service, although she said the closure of some centres could not be ruled out.

Furthermore, staff training that is not mandatory would be axed.

CHILDREN AND YOUNGER ADULTS

Mrs Western said this area was a "priority" for the council but added it was not immune to the cuts.

She said some children's centres would inevitably close – and that a public consultation would help the council decide which ones were to go. Mrs Western said: "We can't sustain the number of children's centres that we've got. We have 53 centres. How many go will be decided after the consultation but we're talking about a small number."

The cuts are also set to lead to the end of subsidised faith school transport in Derbyshire. The council currently spends more than £1 million a year on providing transport for 1,680 pupils whose parents or carers have chosen to send them to a faith school. Mrs Western said this was no longer affordable. A public consultation on this could be launched as early as next week.

Meanwhile, the council will look to raise income by charging groups more to use its youth buildings.

Mrs Western said: "We need to be more efficient in the way we run these centres. They need to become self-financing.

"We've got a state-of-the-art centre in Chesterfield that has a professional recording studio, but it's not marketed in a commercial way."

The council is also considering axing its Education Improvement service, which sees staff go into schools to suggest changes in how they are run.

Elsewhere, users of the Adult Education Service face a rise in charges, while the council will aim to save on costs by recruiting more foster carers.

JOBS, ECONOMY AND TRANSPORT

Chief executive Ian Stephenson said more street lights would be turned off at night to save on the council's energy bill.

The amount of money spent on painting yellow lines, maintaining or installing speed bumps and improving junctions would also be cut.

Mrs Western vowed to protect the council's gritting budget, as this was a "matter of ensuring people's safety".

LIBRARIES/CULTURAL SERVICES

Asked whether any of the council's 45 libraries would close, Mrs Western said: "Given where we are today, it is difficult to see how we can avoid that.

"We need to look at the footfall in these libraries and consult with the public."

Woodville could lose its library, as there is another one a mile away in Swadlincote.

"If we've got a library a mile away from another library, we have to look at that," Mrs Western said.

Libraries that remain open would face further cuts in how much is spent on new books and material.

Opening hours would also be reduced to save money, while the mobile library service is to be reviewed.

Mrs Western said: "Opening hours were reduced by the previous Tory administration, but not an awful lot, so it is likely there will be more of this.

"It's about understanding where the costs fall. If the costs are tied up in staff, then opening hours need to be reduced. But if the costs are more tied up in the building then we need to look at ways to bring those costs down."

Mrs Western said libraries that remained would be required to house other services to ensure the council's building stock was kept to a minimum.

She said: "In Hull, the local council combined a library with a health centre so that only one building was needed between the two services.

"Having one building with multiple uses is the sort of thing we need to be looking at. We can't just cut away because we'll end up with the same cuts being needed the following year. We have to completely change the way the council works."

The proposals will go before cabinet next Tuesday. Opposition councillors will then get an opportunity to have their say at a full council meeting the following day.

Mrs Western said it was not all doom and gloom. "At the end of the next five years of cuts, the council will still be spending hundreds of millions of pounds, employing thousands of staff and providing a wide range of services to over three-quarters of a million people," she said.

"The council will be smaller and provide services in a radically different way but will still be a significant employer and have a major impact on the local economy and the lives of the citizens of Derbyshire.

"We still have a strong vision for the future of the council, its staff and the people of Derbyshire. The pledges we made before we took charge in May still stand."

The council's Tory opposition leader, Andrew Lewer, said: "We pledged to keep all libraries open and would have done so even with these additional savings to find. We were noted innovators in bringing more services into libraries. Labour need to stop looking backwards if Derbyshire's libraries are to be saved."

COUNCIL leader Anne Western said her Labour group would continue to press the Government for a fairer deal for the county.

She said: "We requested a meeting with Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, but he has refused to meet us. It is important he fully understands the impact these Government cuts will have on communities.

"We are committed to doing all we can to put our own house in order by modernising the council and squeezing all possible efficiencies out of our budgets and services.

"We're making sure every penny available to us is spent wisely. That is why we are reviewing all areas of spending to ensure the cash is used where it is needed most."

Mrs Western said the council was looking at ways it could work with the county's district and borough councils, as well as public-sector partners, to identify what services can be shared to save money.

She said: "We're looking to better coordinate health and social care so we can make better use of available resources and protect care and support for elderly and vulnerable people.

"We're also exploring how the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire D2N2 economic partnership can deliver more jobs and growth across the counties."