Greater Manchester town council to reduce adult care and dim street lights as part of £9.1 million budget cut

Bolton Council has revealed in detail how it plans to cut more than £9M from its budget to balance the books. The cuts which include dimming streetlights and only collecting paper and cardboard waste every four weeks will form the authority’s spending plan for 2024/25. The cuts include £4M trimmed from adult care in the borough with the efficiencies gained by a review of ‘care packages, placements and housing demand’.

Around £1M will be cut from children’s services including a review of non statutory subsidies for some transport provided for youngsters. The proposals include moving paper collections to a four-weekly cycle which will save £412,000 and what is described as ‘dimming and trimming’ street lighting across both residential streets and the wider road network to save £460,000 a year.

Other cuts include reviewing ‘alternative delivery’ of two of the 10 libraries in the borough. Around £500,000 is expected to be found by using the household support fund to support welfare payouts. The cuts in total amount to £9.14M for 2024/25. The draft budget assumes an increase in council tax of 4.99 per cent from next April which includes two per cent ring fenced for adult social care.

Large scale job losses at the authority have been avoided in the plans but there is a headcount reduction of around five full-time employees. Some of that will be achieved through deleting employment vacancies that currently exist.

The council currently employs the full-time equivalent of 2,724 workers. The update will go to the council’s cabinet for them to be kept informed next week and then to public consultation.

The budget will still be subject to change until it is agreed by the full council in February. The leader of Bolton Council, Coun Nick Peel, said: “Like all councils, Bolton Council is facing significant financial challenges and needs to make cuts. “The fact is that we have a legal obligation to deliver a balanced budget and we are putting forward proposals to achieve that.

“But it’s important to understand that these are still draft proposals and no final decisions have been made. “Starting from December 5, we will consult on the proposals and I urge people to have their say because their feedback will help councillors shape the cuts that are unfortunately needed.

“We don’t take this responsibility lightly and we know that people in Bolton are relying on us to minimise cuts and protect vital services, and that’s what we’re working hard to do.”

Bolton Council cuts by department for 2024/25

Adult Social Care – TOTAL £4M

– Review of care packages, placements, housing demand including changes to delivery of statutory functions

Children’s Services Directorate – TOTAL £1M

– Service efficiencies – £221K – Review of income opportunities – £200K – Review of non statutory subsidy on transport – £200K – Review of staffing – £100K – Review of Early Help model – £300K

Public Health Directorate – TOTAL £0.5M

– Contract efficiencies and inflation – £400K – Vacancy management – £80K

Place Directorate – TOTAL – £0.85M

– Move to four-weekly collection of paper waste – £400K – Dim and trim street lights – £450K

Corporate Resources Directorate TOTAL – £2.8M

– Review libraries – £100K – ICT projects will be funded by capital – £300K – Cancel Stribe, staff consultation tool – £60K – Increase commercial activity – £100K – Mayoralty – £17K – Welfare provision (switch to Household Support Fund) – £500K – Debt re-modelling and redemption – £1.7M