Cuts to Calderdale Council services, jobs and buildings approved and more could be more on the way

Cuts to services approved by Calderdale Council’s Cabinet will go ahead following scrutiny of its decision – and councillors have been warned to brace themselves for more.
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Members of the council’s Place Scrutiny Board, which has a majority of ruling Labour group councillors, agreed to release Cabinet’s decision for implementation, meaning some of the £2 million annual savings can go ahead, including closing some public halls.

However, cuts and involving waste services, including whether the council will retain five waste transfer stations, will have to go back to Cabinet for approval or not once more work has been done on the proposals.

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Cabinet member for Regeneration and Strategy, Coun Jane Scullion (Lab, Luddenden Foot) said the cuts had to come from the around 30 per cent of the overall budget left once services the authority legally has to provide, to adults’ and children’s social care, were removed from the equation – and she indicated more proposals might be on the way.

Calderdale waste centres could be closed as part of the cutsCalderdale waste centres could be closed as part of the cuts
Calderdale waste centres could be closed as part of the cuts

Councillors objecting needed to consider where else the necessary savings might come from, she said.

“We cannot set an illegal budget and we are in a critical financial position. We don’t want to do it.

“Disretionary services are the only places we can look,” said Coun Scullion.

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And she warned: “In November’s Cabinet there are going to be more, so brace yourselves.”

Councillors heard lost income during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which was not covered by help given so far by the Government, had brought financial issues to a head.

Cabinet members were told around £15 million of savings might need to be found in the next financial year.

If suggested community ownership or running of buildings was a way forward, including asset transfers, Coun Peter Caffrey (Con, Northowram and Shelf), calling in Cabinet’s discussion, said he wanted to be clear people would be supported to do that.

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“Can we be assured there will be support for some of these transfers because our experience has been that there are a lot of hurdles put in the way,” he said.

Coun Geraldine Carter (Con, Ryburn), who also signed the call in notice, questioned whether impacts had been given enough consideration and cited an option of collecting waste every three weeks as an example.

“The borough is going to be one big tip. We won’t need a recycling site – there will be rubbish everywhere if we have to wait three weeks.

“Animals and the wind will scatter it to the four corners,” she said.

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Coun Steven Leigh (Con, Ryburn), third signatory, said services impacted were ones the public had a tangible attachment to, by which they perceived what value for money they were getting for their Council Tax.

Other councillors than Cabinet and the wider public should all be more involved in decisions which had to be taken, he said.

Coun James Baker (Lib Dem, Warley) queries the legality of the process believing it to be a “key” decision because of the amounts involved and the number of people the changes would affect.

Recognising that would have allowed for a much fuller debate and the opportunity for other councillors to propose alternative savings, he said.

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The council’s senior legal officer Ian Hughes said the process was legitimate.

Coun Scullion said Cabinet had to ensure the council was solvent and said 10 years of funding cuts by Government had led to a difficult situation and adding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic had then created “a perfect storm.”

“We cannot carry on cutting the level of resources to the level we have as a country and still have the same level of services. This has been forced upon us,” she said.