Shropshire Council set to avoid going bankrupt as leader claims 'we’ve done it'

A meeting of the full council next week will be told that savings of more than £51million have been identified meaning the loss of hundreds of jobs, the axe being wielded over senior management and a range of potential new charges.

Council finance chiefs have also applied to the government to be able to include some costs, including redundancy payments and transformation projects, in their capital budgets. It would mean they could borrow the costs until they receive money from the sale of assets.

A government decision is due on that within weeks for what is known as a capitalisation direction but finance chiefs say they have a plan B if they are refused it.

The council has applied for the ability to cover multi million pounds to fund transformation costs including resizing, reducing the workforce by around 540 full time posts overall, and to become a “smaller and more efficient” organisation.

Council leader Lezley Picton told a media briefing on Wednesday that “this council has done what it said it would do and set a balanced budget. We have done it.

“The only thing the public will have noticed is the green waste charge.”

She added that it is the “most difficult financial situation” in her years in local government.

“We have removed three quarters of a billion pounds in the 14 years but we are in charge of our own destiny,” she said. “We want to be in control of our own destiny and that is what we have done.”

She said the council would not be introducing three weekly bin collections and there will be ‘no increase in the £56 charge for garden waste collections” in the next financial year.

Among the plans for next year are to take an axe to senior management earning over £100,000 by reducing from 20 posts to 12.5 (including one post shared with the NHS). They say this will save £1.136m.

The council also has plans to continue to reduce its workforce by 540 from 3,500, saving £27million, and change the way council employees work. They will be using digital technology more.

Councillor Picton says the council can maintain services to the public with fewer staff by removing barriers between staff teams.

“It is a substance stronger than Gorilla glue that keeps people working in silos,” she said. “We need to be outcome focussed.”

Councillor Picton also has her eyes set on beefing up enforcement of things like illegal parking, littering and dog fouling.

“We’re not willing to let people get away with these things any more,” councillor Picton said.

She is hoping to get powers to tackle the issue of people parking vehicles on pavements, and on using cameras to catch people dropping litter.

Shropshire Council also plans to work with ‘partners’ including town and parish councils to manage more green spaces, to increase the number of foster carers and to review highways, maintenance and outdoors services to deliver efficiency savings.

Councillor Gwilym Butler, the council’s cabinet member for finance, corporate resources and communities, said they have made “very significant progress” in transforming the organisation. This includes a move out of Shirehall, to Guildhall in Frankwell.

“This is the right time to be bold and optimistic as we take the vital next steps to future sustainabiity – becoming the council we need to be.”

A report will go to a meeting of the full council on February 27.