Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

One council - has the merger really worked?
The move to one council has seemingly left Wiltshire in a weak position regarding the funding reductions being announced by the coalition government.

The Chief Executive has announced a programme of cuts, redundancies, and increases in charges in an attempt to reduce the deficit. The council will also attempt to transfer costs onto other organisations including the voluntary sector.

Andrew Kerr said: "Our role as a local council will change - we will provide fewer services and take on a more enabling role helping local communities to do more for themselves and be a lot less reliant on public services. This will mean we will become smaller and we will employ less people over the next few years."

The government funding cuts are likely to be in the region of £122 million over the next four years, equivalent to 3% of the gross budget and 9% of the net.

WC gross budget for the next 4 years is £3.4 billion whilst the net £1.3 billion. The cost of redundancy payments and the increase in demands on social services will together cost another £100 million over the same period.

The Chief Exec also states that the council will spend £124 million on "Investing in priorities and protecting the vulnerable." The figure is broken down into:

£44million improving and delivering new services such as waste and recycling, leisure, new housing, broadband access and children's attainments in school and our local communities.

£40 million protecting the vulnerable. This will be spent on adults and children's social care. For some reason, 'energy efficiency' and 'the economy' also come under this heading.

£40 million to keep the council tax low. Despite claiming the move to one council would save us money, Wiltshire Conservatives have increased council tax in the new council. Now the government is 'asking' councils to freeze their council tax levels for the next 2 years, this cash-cow is no longer available for milking.

In the short term the council has to cut budgets by £40 million by next April. £16 million will come from staffing cuts - about 240 middle-managers will go, and the number of agency staff and consultants will be reduced to save around £5 million. Existing staff may be asked to take pay cuts.

Mr. Kerr is promising to save £9 million by being less wasteful in the way goods and services are purchased. The council spends around £354 million per year on goods and services. "We want to be more businesslike in how we purchase to reduce costs and be more efficient," he said. It makes you wonder why the council has been so happy to waste our money in the past.

The council also wants to increase its income by £1million, so fees and charges to the public, including parking charges, will go up yet again.

In the longer term the process of asset-stripping the old district council assets will continue. "We will rationalise our buildings from 95 to 4 or 5 main hub offices. This means we will reduce our revenue spend through reducing the level of maintenance and utility costs and we will increase our capital through land and property sales," said Mr. Kerr. However, another problem the council has is that property prices are low at the moment, so it is faced with the prospect of either selling at historically bargain-basement prices or holding on to property until prices rise.