Whilst Welsh councils will not know what the direct impact of the UK Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review upon local services will be until late November, Gwynedd Council is confident that the detailed work it has already undertaken to identify and categorise potential savings will stand the Council in good stead during the difficult period ahead.
Responding to today’s (20/10/10) announcement by the Westminster Government, Gwynedd Council Leader Councillor Dyfed Edwards said:
“This announcement by the UK Government will have significant and long-term implications for local services. Despite this, our priority as a Council is to continue to protect services for the most vulnerable people in our society whilst also making every effort to deliver the best for Gwynedd.
“Gwynedd Council was one of the first councils in Wales to start on the painful but necessary work of preparing for the worst. This means that we are now well placed to make the best of a very bad funding situation.
“Last year councillors from all political groups came together to identify and categorise possible savings and to think about new and radical ways of delivering services.
“A series of workshops were then held throughout the county in November 2009 to obtain the views of the public, voluntary sector and Council staff and a report which identified and categorised savings worth £15.7 million was approved by the full Council in December 2009.
“Since then, the Council has established a Savings Programme Board which has been working tirelessly to strike the best possible balance between delivering savings by finding more efficient ways of working and implementing cuts. The emphasis of this work has been on making internal arrangements as cost-effective as possible in order to keep service cuts to an absolute minimum.”
A preliminary analysis which the Council undertook a few months ago however suggests that Gwynedd may need to find a further £27.5 million between 2011/12 and 2014/15.
Gwynedd Council’s Corporate Director, Dilwyn Williams added:
“The work done so far provides Gwynedd with a solid base from which to start but, as our preliminary savings estimate highlights, the sheer magnitude of the challenge which faces us is huge.
“Unfortunately a further colossal effort will now be needed over the coming months and years and many more unpalatable decisions will need to be taken if we want to avoid the spectre of indiscriminate cuts.”
