Borough council reveals budget cuts (From The Northern Echo)

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Borough council reveals budget cuts

10:40am Thursday 16th February 2012 in Darlington

DOZENS of jobs will be lost, an arts centre will close and council tax is to go up for the next three years as members of Darlington Borough Council prepare to pass a tough budget.

The cuts proposed by the council will affect almost every person in the town as the authority tries to reduce its annual spending bill by more than £27m over the next five years.

Council leader Bill Dixon said he hoped people would understand why the cuts had to be made, but warned residents that normal service at the council is unlikely to resume soon.

Among the proposals that will go before the council’s cabinet next week are: - The loss of at least 155 jobs, mostly through compulsory redundancies.

- Council tax will increase by 3.5 per cent each year until 2016. This year it will rise £26.86 for the average band A household.

- Darlington Arts Centre will close in July. The building, on Vane Terrace, is up for sale.

A 10-week consultation about the cuts prompted more than 6,100 responses and resulted in a number of changes to the initial proposals.

Those changes include a reprieve for Cockerton Library, which was saved from closure and will now have its weekly hours reduced from 56 to 28. Shopmobilty services for the disabled and elderly were also saved with a last minute grant.

The different groups and organisations that operate from Darlington Arts Centre will be given support to find alternative accomodation around the town when it closes.

The council is hoping to sell the building, on Vane Terrace, and has applied for an Arts Council grant to build a purpose built venue in the town centre.

Councillor Dixon said: “Trying to make cuts like these was never going to be easy and we were always going to upset some, if not all, of the people by losing some things.

“What we have been able to do is gauge as best we have ever been able to which cuts are less damaging than others.

“I think people understand why we have to make cuts. I would like to pay tribute to the people who have joined in the process who, without exception, have been good-natured and constructive. I hope people feel they have had a fair hearing.

“There were no cuts here that I wanted to make. With budget cuts like this, normal service will not be resumed any time soon.”

The budget proposals will be discussed in full at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday at 6pm at the Dolphin Centre.

Other budget proposals - subject to agreement at cabinet and full council.

- Parking charges for on-street parking will be introduced on Sundays at a charge of 50p for every 30 minutes.

- Fees for residents’ parking permits will increase from £25 to £50 per annum over the next three years.

- Introduction of a £5 per day waiver to allow trades people and builders to park a vehicle on yellow lines while working.

- The budget for the Connexions service, which works with 12-19-year-olds, will be reduced by £127,000 - Rent subsidies for the Darlington Association on Disability base in Market Place will be withdrawn over four years.

-Lollipop patrols will continue unchanged for a year. Work will begin to look at bringing in volunteer patrols and making more use of automated crossings.

-Durham Police has stepped in to offer funding for 18 CCTV cameras in outlying areas of the town. 19 others will be shut down from April 1.

Comments(19)

Homshaw1 says...
11:51am Thu 16 Feb 12

Why pick on Lollipop people? If someone suggested having volunteers pick up litter and get rid of Street Scene operatives there would be hell to pay