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Leader calls for 'revolution' as council must save £220m in four years
THE leader of Sheffield Council has called for a 'revolution' in the way the authority provides public services, as officers prepare to make £220 million of cuts over four years.
Town Hall leader Coun Paul Scriven was speaking as his Lib Dem cabinet pushed through plans to cut 6.5m in the current financial year.
The proposals, detailed in an interim budget report, will be debated at a full council meeting tomorrow.
The report was drawn up after the coalition government slashed 6.5m from the authority's expected 2010/11 funding.
The council responded by reducing their children and young persons' budget by 3.15m, the Local Enterprise Growth Initiative by 1.2m and community cohesion programme Prevent by 90,000.
Around 220,000 will come from cutting administration costs and 1.8m of savings are yet to be found.
Strategic director of resources Laraine Manley said officers were making "an early start" on preparing 220m savings - around 30 per cent of the council budget - for the next four years.
Coun Scriven warned the council would assess budgets on service provision, rather than by protecting organisations.
He said: "The public sector will need something bordering on a revolution in the way it provides services.
"We need to work out what is needed in terms of public sector services, not in terms of organisations."
The Lib Dem leader showed he was willing to sacrifice public bodies earlier this year when he pulled funding for the long-standing Sheffield Racial Equality Council.
At the time he argued its services could be offered more cheaply by other bodies and said all publicly-funded organisations had to justify their existence.
Coun Scriven added: "We have not gone into this exercise seeing this as just numbers on paper - we understand this is about people about services and making sure the vulnerable are protected."
He slammed Labour politicians for "abdicating their responsibility" by bemoaning the cuts without accepting their role in creating the "financial mess".
Deputy Labour leader Coun Bryan Lodge said: "Labour believes the Con Dem Government is making cuts too far and too fast and we're not on our own in our beliefs.
"The Office of Budget Responsibility fear these cuts may harm the recovery and risk a double dip recession and the Institute of Fiscal Studies warn that these Con Dem cuts are a backwards step."
David Blunkett, MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, called for a "complete rethink," abelling the budget review "immoral, unacceptable and devastating in terms of our social fabric".
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Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
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Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
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