500 jobs may go in council cuts

North Yorkshire County Council is facing grave financial pressures amid a surge in demand for services while funding from Westminster falls significantly in the wake of the recession.

Concerns are growing that up to 500 posts could be lost from the local authority, which employs 24,000, during the next three years in the battle to balance an annual 900m budget. Council chief executive John Marsden admitted that local authorities nationally are facing the biggest financial pressures in a generation since major cuts in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

However, he stressed that a long-term strategy is being drawn up to prevent a knee-jerk reaction to the lack of funding, which is expected to continue for at least the next three years.

Mr Marsden said: "The message to the Government is that people depend on the services that are provided by local authorities, but we simply cannot keep making the efficiency savings we are looking at without some job losses.

"We will balance the books, but that will mean we have to look at new initiatives and changes in the way the council works. If you do not plan properly, ultimately you will end up facing more costs because you have opted for a short-term fix.

"This is not about blaming central government, which has been the case for some local authorities in the past, it is about having to find ways of working together to address the problems." One of the greatest pressures that the council is facing on its services is the increasing demand for care of the elderly as North Yorkshire has witnessed a rapidly changing slant towards an ageing population.

In North Yorkshire, it is estimated there will be 50 per cent more people aged over the age of 65 living in the county by 2020 – a quarter of the total population. In 2001, the over-65s represented only 18 per cent.

The council has been at the forefront of a technological revolution to boost community care by installing motion sensors that can detect falls in the homes of pensioners. The new generation of sensors is used to counter growing pressure on resources as care managers face up to the changing demographics leading to an ageing population.

Mr Marsden maintained that the technology has been key in helping alleviate some of the financial pressures which the authority has faced and stressed that future advancements would be vital to ensure adequate care services could be provided.

He also called on the county's 600,000 residents to take more responsibility after a culture of over-reliance on local authorities has emerged in recent years.

Mr Marsden, who will leave his post this month before taking up the role of North Tyneside Council's chief executive, said: "People are now more willing to phone up their council and ask why the roads or paths have not been gritted or why the rubbish has not been taken away.

"I'm not saying that is wrong, but people need to be aware that councils are under a lot of pressure financially." The county council is facing a 40m shortfall in funding – even after 11m of savings have been made during the new financial year.

A reduction in Government funding is expected to leave a gap of 25m in the council's finances during the 2011-12 and 2012-13 financial years.

A growing demand for services is predicted to compound the shortfall by a further 15m during these two financial years.

While between 300 and 500 posts are expected to be lost over the next three years, Mr Marsden stressed that every effort would be made not to impose redundancies as employees leaving or retiring would not be replaced.