Public asked to choose where axe should fall in £210m cuts

Sheffield Council has already been forced to find millions of pounds worth of cuts this financial year but faces a 30 per cent reduction in its budget over the next four years.

Chief executive John Mothersole told the Yorkshire Post the cuts would affect every aspect of the council and said a "three-stage consultation exercise" was being drawn up.

He said: "The first stage will be an open consultation where we will be asking people in Sheffield to submit any ideas they have to help us meet the savings target we've set.

"We will then take those ideas and have a public debate and finally we hope to have a city-wide discussion where we hope people will tell us how things can be done differently.

"The public will be given the opportunity to comment on how every aspect of our services are run before final decisions are made on what action we take to make any cuts."

It is thought the process will begin in the next few weeks, to give officers time to implement changes.

Sheffield Council was already projecting an overspend of 5m before the Government announced it was cutting this year's budget by 6.5m, leaving officers with an 11.5m gap.

Despite this, Mr Mothersole said he was confident the books will be balanced and said yesterday the 6.5m savings demanded by Government had already been found.

He added: "As far as we are concerned that's it for this year, but we are not being complacent.

"My message to council staff and the public is we now have nine months.

"The effects are going to be profound, but what we are not pursuing in Sheffield is this concept of the minimum council. We are being honest with staff, and asking them to help us.

"It would not be sensible for us to massively slash certain services – we need to keep doing what we do but we are going to have to do a lot less of it. That will be very hard."

Mr Mothersole said figures are not yet available on how many jobs will be lost, but accepted that staff would go.

He added: "Efficiencies will help, but they are not going to get us through this."

The 6.5m cuts identified by council officers were approved by elected members at a meeting on Wednesday, including plans to take more than 3m out of children's services this year.

Trade union officials held a demonstration outside the Town Hall and GMB organiser Peter Dvais called on Mr Mothersole to reveal how authority staff would be affected.

He added: "The real problem is the larger 200m cuts, about which there has not been any consultation with unions.

"The council should come clean on how many jobs will be lost."

Mr Mothersole said he was not in a position to talk about numbers of redundancies but said that no part of the council would be immune from examination under the consultation.

Even so-called "statutory services", which the council has a duty to provide by law, will be reviewed, although several projects, including the city's new markets, retail quarter and Park Hill flats regeneration will be protected.

The chief executive said: "We are committed to not slipping back. We have put a lot of effort into these schemes and not one of them has failed."

He also said he and his staff would not delay making cuts if they thought they were to be right and added: "My personal approach would be that if we are going to make changes, who should make them in the shortest possible time."