Cut now and pay the price?

The past six months have seen 16 libraries, one leisure centre, two swimming pools, four tourist information centres and two homeless hostels close locally while this week marked the last-ever delivery runs for 10 of North Yorkshire County Council’s 11 mobile library vans.

The loss of these services will be felt most acutely in the communities that had taken these facilities and services for granted. It is also the beginning of a long process that could, unless managed properly, see the fabric of some communities disintegrate. The bleak economic prognosis for the world, sparked by a raft of depressing data from an America that is effectively in paralysis until the next Presidential election in 14 months’ time, means there is little likelihood of Mr Cameron relenting in the weeks ahead, even if he does tweak his approach to put a greater emphasis on job creation measures.

Yet, despite relentless efforts to cut costs, only four of Yorkshire’s 14 largest authorities are on course to meet stringent targets – in part because their increased responsibilities and spending curbs during the Labour government left them with little room for manoeuvre before the coalition came to power.

Unless they do so, the financial ramifications will demand even greater efficiencies in the future – cuts that will imperil more key services like libraries and swimming pools.

That said, the Government could ease this process by relaxing the decision to front load the cuts exercise. Of course, the Treasury will have to accept some financial consequences – but there are, potentially, longer-term benefits for an administration that is supposedly championing a Big Society.

As James Alexander, the leader of City of York Council, articulates in today’s newspaper, this would provide greater scope for communities to help preserve, and run, some services. This, he says, takes time and cannot happen overnight. The issue, however, is whether Mr Cameron and his team have the inclination to listen – or whether the financial crisis is so great that even this one concession is beyond their means.