North East Councils facing four years of uncertainty
Nov 11 2010 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal
FOUR years of financial uncertainty and further job losses face North East councils, a leading officer has warned.
City leaders will be forced to spend the next four years considering options such as selling off buildings, making more management positions redundant and increases to council charges.
The warning was sounded by North Tyneside chief executive John Marsden, who said he expects to have to increase his latest redundancy total of 300 before the funding cuts are completed.
He was speaking as former Newcastle Council leader Lord Beecham accused the Government of rushing into a programme of abolishing job creation agencies which could have a damaging impact on the region.
As The Journal revealed yesterday, more than 3,500 posts have been targeted for the axe at North East councils, with sources predicting thousands more are still to go.
Last night Mr Marsden said councils had predicted the scale of the cuts, but admitted that did not make the decisions any easier to make.
“If you don’t prepare for these things you end up in trouble. We intended to deliver the changes before March 31, 2011, so by April we will have a budget we can cope with.
“We will introduce a North Tyneside plan after December to show how we intend to take action and reduce cost.
“Everything from basic efficiencies, reducing buildings we use, reducing transport cost, possibly contracting out work, sharing work with Northumberland County Council.
“We, ourselves and other councils, also then have to look at changing eligibility to say if you have access to something we say, sorry, you will have to wait longer for that service. We might look for reduced opening hours in some places or ask people to contribute more.”
Asked if he believed his council’s workforce would need further cuts, Mr Marsden said: “I think 300 will cover us for the next year or so and we review for years two, three and four.
“If I’m being straight here I think we will need to take more jobs out. I’m not saying thousands of jobs, but a measured approach. First we have to look at what services we can reduce.”
Tynemouth Labour MP Alan Campbell has said it is increasingly clear that “hundreds more jobs” will be lost at authorities across the region.
“We know the deficit has to be reduced but a 28% cut to local government is going too fast too soon.
“It is also clear, however, that some in Government and local authorities see this as an opportunity for an ideological attack on public services.”
The Journal revealed yesterday that councils will not be able to borrow cash to fund redundancy payments that must be made to those losing their jobs in the cutbacks.
