Northamptonshire County Council prepares to make ‘radical’ cuts in the face of £70m budget shortfall

Authority announces cuts will be made to areas including children’s services, road maintenance and waste management

The local authority is the only council to formally declare itself at risk of spending more money than it currently has available (PA)

Northamptonshire County Council is preparing to make “radical” cuts to its children’s services, road maintenance and waste management as it faces a budget shortfall of up to £70m.

The authority held a special meeting to agree on a plan to deal with the budget crisis, which 15 Conservative councillors failed to attend.

The meeting saw discussions on an unspecified number of redundancies and a scale-back to the basic “core” services the council is legally obligated to provide.

Summarising the debate, the council’s leader, Matthew Golby, said: “We have got to make sure that we provide the services we can and that we aren’t putting people at risk – and we as a council will not be putting people at risk.

“Do we understand the implications? Yes. Our role is to ensure we are providing the services we can. Frankly, we are not going to give up. It is the most challenging thing me and my colleagues have ever been faced with.”

The council voted in favour of noting and agreeing with the chief finance officer’s decision to admit the council does not have the resources to meet current expenditure and that it has little confidence it can bring spending under control in the near future.

It also voted to approve the action plan dealing with how to control expenditure and the list of core services it is legally obliged to provide before cuts can be made.

It also emerged that the council was forced to take on two commissioners from Whitehall who, according to a Labour councillor, are being paid £1,500 a day – a bill allegedly being paid by the Tory-run council.

Councillor Dennis Meredith said: “We are paying £1,500 a day for commissioners. I think that’s a scandal. We need to send you back to London. It’s only 60 miles.”

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said: “It is essential residents are able to have faith in their council, particularly in the responsible use of taxpayers’ money. The financial challenges facing the council are clearly serious and reinforce how important it was that we took swift action to appoint commissioners.

“These commissioners will continue to work closely with the council as it takes the necessary steps to rebalance its finances.”

The body representing England’s county councils said other authorities are likely to be forced into announcing a scaling back of the services to residents to a legal minimum “core offer”.

Northamptonshire County Council is one of 200 local authorities in England to have budgeted for a net decrease in reserves in 2018-19.

A total of 199 of 353 authorities, 56 per cent, have forecast a drop, suggesting councils of all types are struggling to plug funding shortfalls.

As of 1 April 2018, Northamptonshire’s reserves were estimated to be £344m, but the figure is budgeted to drop to £32m by the end of the financial year on 31 March, 2019.

So far, it is the only authority to have formally declared itself at risk of spending more money than it currently has available.

The council is set to meet in the coming weeks to discuss cuts it will make to jobs and services.

Additional reporting by Press Association