Councillors face axe to save cash

RADICAL plans to help Oldham Council balance the books include slashing the number of councillors by one third.

The Lib-Dem and Tory coalition leadership is proposing reducing councillors from 60 to 40 members to save £280,000 a year.

It would mean 20 wards having two councillors instead of three and changing the local electoral cycle so half the councillors are up for election every two years — saving another £75,000 in election spending.

The plans are included in the latest budget proposals that will be considered by cabinet on Tuesday.

The council needs to save £41 million for the next financial year, which includes £25 million in savings that were anticipated and an additional £16 million through the loss of Government grants.

In December, an initial £16 million of savings were agreed and the latest report recommends a second tranche of savings worth a further £12.282 million.

The council needs to save another £22.736 million in 2012-13 and £14.667 million in 2013-14.

Council leader Councillor Howard Sykes said: “Through the public consultation citizens told us that they want the impact of savings on services that affect their daily lives to be minimised — that message has been heard loud and clear.

“We also received feedback about the level of councillors’ allowances and expenses. We have to examine the council’s spending in all areas and councillors simply cannot be exempt from that review — we have to share the pain. These proposals could reduce the cost of councillors and the election process of at least £355,000 in total.”

Amendments to earlier proposals have also been made following public consultation, including the council continuing to provide home care.

Councillor Sykes said: “Following this consultation the proposed changes to older and disabled people’s services have been amended in direct response to the feedback we heard from service users.

“For example, we listened to the concerns about the delivery of complex care needs via a private provider and will now retain sufficient internal capacity to provide home care for up to 15 people with these specialist needs.

“That is just one of 10 important changes that have been made to plans for those services as a result of feedback from the public.”

The council currently has three councils per ward, costing £840,000 in allowances a year, who serve a four-year term with elections held for a third of members every three years out of four.

If approved by cabinet the proposals relating to councillors and the electoral cycle would be put to a meeting of full council in April. They could then be implemented in time to make savings in the 2012-13 budget.

Oldham’s only Green Councillor Ian Barker said: “This proposal gets my support but other budget cuts can also be made in relation to spending on councillors.

“The financing of Group researchers, IT equipment and extra responibility allowances, with the exception of Group Leaders, should be stopped. These are luxuries we can do without. Council services come first.”