Cash-strapped council faces having to make hundreds of job cuts

Coun Daren Hale, deputy leader of Hull Council

Hull Council has published proposals for its next round of savings up to 2019/20. They include slashing the five customer service centres to just one, the Wilson Centre, in the city centre.

Deputy leader Coun Daren Hale said: “Under the current budget we would have seen potentially 200 posts go between April 1 2016 and April 1 2017 but because the Cabinet has bought forward next year’s savings early, we suspect that will lead to an additional loss of 100 posts.

“In addition to the 300 under the voluntary early termination (VET) scheme, that is 500 to 600 jobs in total.”

Coun Hale said they’d had no alternative in the face of “constant” Government reductions in grant funding, amounting to around £104m since 2010.

He added: “We’ve had 600 applications for the VET scheme and what we are doing in the next couple of weeks is seeing how many can go.”

They had considered charging at the only two remaining public toilets at Nelson Street and Queen Victoria Square, but decided it would be a “cut too far” in City of Culture year.

The report will be considered at the Finance and Value for Money Overview and Scrutiny Commission next Friday, and then Cabinet on July 25. Further papers detailing savings will be published over the summer.

Brendan Arnold, Director of Finance, Infrastructure and Transformation, said: “The council faces a very significant challenge to maintain services in the face of major cuts.”