DURHAM County Council is planning to dip into its reserves to help smooth the passage of the latest round of cuts it needs to make.

The council’s cabinet meeting will this morning be asked to approve a consultation asking people what they think the priorities of council spending should be, as they try to cut £29m from their budget for 2017/18 – after a proposed £8.2m cushion from its reserves.

The authority has already made significant cuts to its budget and remains on target to hit the required £181m by the end of this financial year, including a reduction of 2,000 staff posts.

But based on financial predictions and Government information to date – and without yet knowing the full impact of leaving the European Union – the council forecasts it will need to find a further £64million in savings by the end of 2019/20.

Outlining the latest medium-term financial plan ahead of today’s meeting, head of financial services Paul Darby, said: “As austerity cuts more deeper it becomes more difficult and it will inevitably become more visible to people in terms of the impact.

“One of the things the council has done over the last couple of years is be aware that that is coming – the potential impact on the front line - so we set aside a budget support reserve of £30million last financial year with the intention of using that to smooth in the savings.

“For 2017/18 we are planning to use £8.2m of that reserve to offset having to do savings otherwise.

“Had the council not had that capacity there would have been £8.2m savings to make on top of the £29m.”

Council leader Cllr Simon Henig said: “We will always try to protect frontline services.

“Where we can there will be efficiencies rather than cutting something down completely. Inevitably it gets more difficult.”

Suggested savings include £6m by reviewing adult care services provided by County Durham Care and Support and £750,000 by reviewing the council’s youth service.

Cllr Henig said the reason for “big numbers” on children and adult services was because they were biggest spending areas of council – some 62 per cent.

The council will stage a consultation exercise to find out what the public’s priorities are.

Cllr Henig said: “We will be going out in September to each of 14 area partnerships and do an online survey and try and find as many ways as possible to find out the public’s views.

“We will be asking how they think we managed it in the last consultation exercise in , how we could we have done it better and will be asking exactly about the proposed savings if there any areas that are particularly sensitive – and what we can do in this difficult climate.”