'Bankrupt' Nottingham City Council approves budget consultation

A "bankrupt" council is urging people to take part in a consultation over proposed cuts to jobs and services.

Nottingham City Council is planning the cuts in a bid to address a £53.7m shortfall in its 2024-25 budget.

The move comes after the council declared itself effectively bankrupt on 29 November, due to being unable to balance the books for the current financial year.

One councillor said some of the cuts would "wreck the fabric of the city".

In March this year, the Labour-run council approved a balanced four-year financial plan, however the authority said soaring costs and demand in adults and children's social care and homelessness had pushed it to a financial knife-edge.

It also admitted past failures by the council had left it with less reserves to "smooth the current financial pressures".

A series of service closures and 554 full-time equivalent job cuts have been proposed in a bid to bring the deficit of roughly £53.7m down.

During an executive board meeting on Tuesday, councillors approved the plans and agreed to put a raft of measures out for public consultation, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

A four-week public consultation will now take place, concluding on 16 January.

Some of the savings include a review of the libraries service, which could result in the loss of 31 jobs to save £1.5m, cutting down road sweeping, reducing community protection to save £3m at a loss of 63 jobs and stopping some Linkbus services.

A number of the savings are subject to public consultation, meaning residents will get the chance to have their say on some changes before they are made.

However, a total of 187 jobs out 500 will be cut without the requirement of a public consultation, saving a total of £20.6m.

The council's deputy leader, Audra Wynter, said: "Like all councils, we have a legal responsibility to balance our budget. In order to do that next year, we have to consider some very difficult decisions about services which we, and local communities, value in order to make the savings needed.

"We want to be upfront with people about the serious situation we face as a city but no final decisions have been made on the proposals so I would urge everyone to have their say by completing the survey."

Speaking at the meeting, Ross Brown, the council's chief finance officer, said the savings had been proposed due to "exceptional operational challenges".

Councillors spoke to say almost half of the proposed savings and cuts do not have political support from members.

Steve Battlemuch, Labour ward councillor for Wollaton West, said: "We've got to look at the fact some of these proposals will absolutely wreck the fabric of the city if implemented in full, and we've got to find every possible way of finding extra money over the next eight weeks to stop some of those proposals being put to full council in February.

"It is absolutely vital we hear what services are popular, but also what services are vitally needed in this city, and we need to see that and people need to speak up about those services, because we want to be able to use that consultation in our further discussions with government."

Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].