Dear All
The financial situation in Shropshire Council is now dire. There has been some poor decision making around spend on shopping centres, roads and more. The reduction in Government funding has been up to 60% and Social Care is now hugely paid for by the Council Tax payer. Please look a the link below and take part in any consultation when it happens.
Below is an extract of a message from Lezley Picton, Leader of Council. This could well impact us in rural areas significantly.
Best wishes.
Heather
“You will already be aware of the financial challenge affecting councils all over the country and Shropshire has been particularly affected by this.
“Growing demand and cost for adults’ and children’s social care is exacerbated by our rural and sparsely populated geography, and our budget has been stretched like never before.
“We have already said that we will need to make difficult decisions that we never wanted to make. We know this will have a considerable impact for our communities but we have no choice.
“To balance our budget for 2024/25, we must review all of our services. Some will change, some will be reduced and, unfortunately, some will have to stop altogether.
“Our MediumTerm Financial Strategy will be published shortly and will include full details of our plans, to be discussed at Cabinet on 21 February and at Full Council on 29 February.
“Some of the difficult decisions we propose are:
• Reviewing the strategy for library provision to make savings
• Reducing support for leisure provision
• Reviewing and reducing the number of household recycling centres
• Charging for green waste collections. Households could opt out of this collection if they wish – food waste collection will be abandoned.
• Reducing the number of council buildings and other assets and accelerating the move from Shirehall into alternative offices
• Changing how we meet the transport needs of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities – a consultation on this has already begun.
“Significant changes will need to go through further consultation, with the public and with staff.
“We expect that the proposals would see the council reduce by around 300 FTE posts to achieve the scale of savings we must find. This number may change as we explore alternative ways to reduce our involvement in the provision of many services. As you would expect, we will be doing all we can to minimise compulsory redundancies and will update you further on this as soon as we can.
“We would be facing a much bigger challenge without the savings of £41.3m that we have already made in this financial year, the most we have ever achieved. As we take the next steps to set the council budget, we will continue our conversations with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and continue to lobby for funding reform that takes account of the challenges that local government faces and the unique set of circumstances that makes Shropshire’s position even more challenging. A dedicated section of our website has gone live at
www.shropshire.gov.uk/ourbudget2024 “