County Council meeting at Shire Hall
A full meeting of Warwickshire County Council takes place today at Shire Hall, Warwick, to set the budget for 2011/2012.
Further details will be published as decisions are made.
Councillor Alan Farnell, Leader of Warwickshire County Council, opened the meeting with his Council Budget Statement:
"Madam Chairman, I would now like to make a statement to Council outlining our budget proposals.
"On the 2nd November, I made a statement to Council detailing our budget planning to date. In this statement, I outlined the challenging situation local government found itself following the CSR statement. Like all other local authorities, our reduction in grant settlement in December further added to the difficult decisions.
"Over the next three years, this Council will have to make savings of at least £66m - £33m of which will have to be made in the coming financial year. We all accept that the magnitude of the financial challenges requires large scale reform. And, as in recent years, Warwickshire is underfunded when compared to the average local authority.
"But regardless of recent movement in the funding landscape, our principles remain the same. We may not be able to do as much as we, or other parties, would like but we’re doing as much as we can with the money we’ve got, and we must be realistic.
"So, our proposals aim to protect the most vulnerable and the services that support them. Our proposals will keep people safe, foster independence and support enterprise. And with both these aims we will do as much as our finances will allow.
"And, as always, we strive to achieve value for money.
"And we are focused on providing a leaner organisation, essential if we are to have effective services.
"In doing all this, we will move towards becoming a business-led, commissioning organisation, looking at alternative models of service delivery including shared services, mutuals and social enterprises, and we look forward to forthcoming legislation as laid out in the Localism Bill.
"In making sure that our priorities reflected those of Warwickshire people, we launched in November an online consultation process called YouChoose. I would like to thank all those who took the time to respond, we value all of the contributions and suggestions made.
"Guided by feedback from YouChoose, we have been able to amend our autumn proposals in relation to the youth service and the role of the voluntary and community sector. More widely, I am pleased that that YouChoose feedback supports our approach to making the Council and leaner organisation with streamlined management structures.
"Since the 2nd November, we have put much in motion. The structure of the organisation must become leaner, with a stream-lined number of Directors and Heads of Service. The organisation is also becoming leaner as we share services and reduce the number of public buildings.
"Earlier this month, we put forward proposals for a review of the library service seeking to modernise the service in the face of difficult saving requirements. Cllr Colin Hayfield will talk more about this later.
"And I am pleased to confirm that £1m has been put back in to the Youth Service to protect the most valuable aspects of this service in order for it to offer targeted provision as part of multi-disciplinary teams. Cllr Heather Timms will talk more about this later.
"As you will see from our budget proposals, we have also allocated £400,000 to gritting for severe winter weather, and £250,000 to retain road safety cameras in accident black-spots. Cllr Alan Cockburn will talk more about this later.
"As I said back in November, none of us come into politics to make cuts, but when faced with challenges it is the role of politicians to be responsible, fair and open about those things we support, and have the conviction to reform areas where we know we can improve. I relish the challenge. The scale of it presents us with some opportunities to reform a number of our services and review our role as a local authority for the people of Warwickshire.
"These budget proposals, alongside the draft Corporate Business Plan, outline how we will deliver our priorities and ambitions for Warwickshire.
"Our proposals are considered but bold, tough but fair and I look forward to a constructive debate and an agreement that is right for the future of the County Council."