October 21, 2011 2.38 pm This story is over 149 months old

County Council: ‘Worst of the cuts are over’

Cuts break: County Council Leader Martin Hill said the council is on track with making cuts, as the worst is over.

Martin Hill, the Leader of Lincolnshire County Council, said he is confident that one year since the government’s spending review, “the worst of the cuts are over”.

The authority has to make savings of £125 million over the next four years, and Hill said “we have made good progress towards this target, saving £50m in the past year.”

Some of the services where cuts were applied are children’s services, culture and adult education, economic regeneration, and adult social care.

The Park View care home on St Botolph’s Crescent will also be closed close along with The Cedars in Gainsborough, Ingelow Manor in Boston, Halmer Grange in Spalding and Crowtree House in Louth.

A total of 800 jobs were lost in the saving process at the County Council, mostly in adult social care, where personal budgets are about to be introduced.

“We have had to reduce our workforce substantially, but the majority of this was achieved without the need for compulsory redundancies, and affected staff have been redeployed wherever possible,” Hill explained.

“We began by reducing the number of senior managers by 30%, saving the authority more than £3 million per year, reducing pressure on frontline service budgets.”

“Although, further reductions are likely as a result of changing national policy, for example to do with the Academy and personalisation budget,” Councillor Hill added, “I’m confident that the worst of the cuts are over.”