‘Difficult and unpleasant’ choices ahead as Calderdale Council faces £15m worth of cuts

Leader of the Council, Coun Tim Swift (Lab, Town) outlined to a meeting of the full council some of the annoucements Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has made which would feed into the authority’s financial planning.

Coun Swift expressed disappointment about the pay restrictions annnouced for public sector workers: “It’s a pretty shabby way to treat people who have put so much effort into keeping things running and keeping our community safe over the past year,” he said.

Although the council was allowed to increase Council Tax by a set amount for social care, underlying pressures remained and next year the council would still have to make around £15 million of savings, he said, with the pandemic having a long-standing impact on the council’s finances.

Coun Swift said that after ten years of austerity “difficult and unpleasant” choices lay ahead.

“The challenges set out are not just about COVID-19 but the continuing challenge of providing local services when councils have been targeted for cuts in the ten years of austerity,” he said.

There were little signs problems for councils were being addressed by the Government, said Coun Swift.

Opposition Conservative group leader Coun Steven Leigh (Ryburn) objected to this view and accused the ruling Labour group of making cuts without adequate consultation.

He said Cabinet members referred to ongoing COVID-19 impact but in the light of the World Health Organisation saying it would be two years before a vaccine could be developed but several already were, how sound were Cabinet’s assumptions?

“Are the swingeing cuts you are proposing to services in Calderdale necessary?” he said, adding that more support could be coming.

Liberal Democrat group leader Coun James Baker (Warley) said other approaches could be taken.

“We shouldn’t just think about cutting things, but how we can increase our revenue and take a more commercial approach to services,” he said.

Coun Baker said he was also concerned about transparency with only short notice given of proposed cuts leaving others little time to find alternatives – his group had proposed some of these in the past with one, the idea of a community lottery, accepted by Cabinet but not implemented.

Coun Josh Fenton-Glynn (Lab, Calder) said cuts made by Conservative and Coalition Government over the last decade meant he wished he shared Coun Leigh’s optimism, “but I am a realist.”

Coun Stephen Baines (Con, Northowram and Shelf) said austerity had been necessary because of the financial position left by the previous Labour Government.

Cabinet member for Resources, Coun Silvia Dacre (Lab, Todmorden), said the Government had to come up with a sustainable solution for adult social care costs which took up so much of many councils’ budgets.

“Ultimately councils will not be able to survive in the long term until that problem of adult services is resolved,” she said.