‘We are at the rock-face with nowhere else to go’ council facing finance pressures appeal to opposition groups

The council’s cabinet was told the administration was now drawing up contingency plans after bleak early financial projections suggested the council may miss its £62.5m savings target for this year.

But at the meeting at Shirehall on September 11, a challenge from Conservative finance portfolio holder Councillor Gwilym Butler to work together on a collaborative budget for the next financial year were met with a guarded response from leaders of the main opposition groups.

Liberal Democrat leader Councillor Roger Evans said the proposal was “under consideration” by the group, but added they had doubts about the transparency of the process.

“It is under consideration. We want to join, but given the history of the last 15 years of only being told certain things when we have to be told, and only being told when the public are told, some wonder whether that is going to really change and that’s a discussion that is ongoing,” he told the meeting.

“There are certain members who think: ‘Can we in good faith go into a discussion and will we be given access to all the facts?’, and that it why I cannot answer it at present. It’s a matter of faith and some do not have that faith.”

Green group leader Councillor Julian Dean said the Greens would continue to work constructively with the administration on the council’s budget, and drew their attention to previous Green proposals on waste minimisation and carbon savings which have now been adapted as cost savings within the budget.

And while leader of the Labour group Rosemary Dartnall added that it didn’t yet feel like the “accelerator had been pressed” on savings delivery and that the council remained “in shock” at the level of required cuts, council leader Lezley Picton replied that she should “impress upon her government” that the council needed more financial help.

“Quarter one is what it is, it’s what happens now,” she said.

“There will be things that we either pause, or stop, or change the way we do it and those will have to be communicated to the public because we cannot continue to offer the same level of service with a much reduced staff and a much reduced budget.

“Councils are doing this day in day out, they are making some extremely difficult choices. The number of libraries that are under threat across this country is horrendous.

“This is not just a Shropshire issue, Councillor Dartnall and I would be really grateful if you could impress upon your government to actually look at the situation, to fund social care properly for both children and adults.

“There’s been a Conservative government for a number of years but we really are now at the rock-face, there is nowhere else we can go.”