Council set to slash 120 jobs in £8m bid to balance budget

Oldham council bosses approved £8m in cuts to balance the its books at a budget cabinet meeting last night (Monday).

The authority will now have to ‘work harder’ to keep up services as they slash funding and 120 job roles, cabinet members say.

Although 80 per cent of those roles were already vacant, the cuts are part of measures to fill a £14m black hole in the council budget, which also include raising council tax by 4.99 percent and raising charges on council services by an average of 4.5 pc. 

Just under £4m is coming from adult social care – in part by limiting services to what is necessary on a case-by-case basis, instead of using a ‘one-size-fits-all’ wrap-around approach.

More than three million will come from ‘restructuring’ and slashing 120 job roles at the council.

Around 80 pc of the positions are already vacant following staff departures and a round of voluntarily redundancies at the end of last year.  

Oldham’s portfolio holder for finance, Abdul Jabbar, added that he would ensure there would be ‘no compulsory redundancies’ for the remaining 20 pc.

The remaining million are from smaller-scale suggestions, including permanently switching off the faulty floodlights at Radclyffe Athletics Centre, which is currently costing the council £100k a year, increasing the price of swimming pool rentals to schools, bringing parking management ‘in house’ and potentially charging for replacement recycling bins.

The council ledger could have been ‘much worse off’ if they hadn’t received grants and financial support from the government totalling around £27m, according to town hall bosses. 

But they added that benefits of government support and planned changes in the way local authorities are funded ‘will only be seen in a couple of years’ time’, 

On top of cuts, the cabinet approved a council tax increase of 4.99 percent – a more than £77 increase to £1,628 per year for the lowest tax band and a £232 increase for the highest (going up to £4,883).

These could be slightly higher in Shaw and Saddleworth if parish councils decide to put up their rates too. 

Coun Jabbar said: “Nobody wants to increase council tax, but we have to do it because of the situation we’re in and because the government expects us to.

"Nearly all councils are increasing the rate, some are even increasing it by 9.9pc, others by 7.99pc because of the financial difficulties they’re in.” 

Council leader Arooj Shah said: “We’re going to have to make some really tough decisions. 

"We will still always try to do the right thing.

"We’ve done everything we can to minimise the impact of proposals on residents.

“Once this budget is agreed we’re going to have to work harder to make sure services work, that we continue to be more efficient and continue to offer value for money for all our residents.”

The budget will now go to full council on March 6.

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