Arun District Council pledge: No more cuts

That was the pledge made by the leader of Arun District Council to councillors.

Gillian Brown said the council’s tough actions of the past two years had made it well placed to withstand the spending pressures imposed by the poor national finances.

“We are in a strong position at the moment,” she assured them at a full meeting of the council.

“I am not expecting there to be any more job cuts or savings in 2011/12 on top of those already announced.”

Recent action by the council - with its current annual budget of £23.6m - to trim its costs in staffing and services would see it achieve £3m of savings in the current year and the next two years.

A further £1.4m had been saved in the housing revenue account in 2010. On top of that, permanent staff numbers were being cut by 13 per cent.

But the council had been told to expect a seven per cent smaller grant from Whitehall each year to keep the squeeze on the council’s finances.

That had been balanced by promises of more flexibility and local choice about how the money could be spent and less targets to meet.

“We will have more power but less money,” Cllr Mrs Brown said. “That’s the reality. It’s how we use that money that will really count.”

All the council’s four political groupings agreed at the annual state of the district meeting spending on more affordable housing was an essential goal in the coming years.