Council implementing cuts says services should be unaffected

Tory council leader Keith Knaggs said while town halls all around the country were having to make savings Ryedale Council was "in a better position because we saw this situation coming".

Some savings had already been achieved by 18 of the council's 350 full and part-time staff agreeing to be pensioned off. Value for money in delivering service was being helped by a guiding light of a 1,100-strong citizens' panel.

Cost-sharing with other local authorities and Government agencies to reduce overheads on services such as audit, winter maintenance of roads, building control and tourism, was also making savings in an "over expanded public sector," he added. Lib Dem leader, Coun Howard Keal, said the key was smarter and better working.

Independent group leader Robert Wainwright did not believe any cuts to services were on the cards – partly because so much work in Ryedale was carried out by the voluntary sector.

However, Liberal leader John Clark said he did not share the emerging consensus that there would be no effect on services to the public.

"I don't believe it. We are always told there will be no cuts to front line services. There are places you can make efficiencies but if you cut support services you end up with front line staff doing the support jobs, and the service is reduced," he added.

ART SECTOR IN PLEA OVER SAVINGS

Leaders of arts organisations banded together to make an impassioned plea to Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday, asking him not to "kill" off cultural institutions with harsh spending cuts.

Attractions including Tate, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Serpentine Gallery said that while the cultural sector was willing to play its part in the country's economic recovery with "realistic" efficiencies, proposals of cuts of 25 per cent to 40 per cent would be "catastrophic".

Launching their appeal at Tate Britain, they argued that it would come on top of savings already being made this year, as well as the cultural sector's 322m contribution to the costs of the Olympics.

Arts Council England has estimated that out of around 850 organisations on its portfolio, 200 would go under over four years if cuts upwards of 25 per cent were made.