County Tories Propose Massive £33m million of cuts

Published on Sat 23rd Jan 2010

Valley Ward Lib. Dem. Andrew Dunkin outside one of the County Council's care homes in Carlton

Nottinghamshire County Council's Tory administration are proposing massive cuts to services later in the year. A large part of the Tories' money saving plans are targeted at the elderly.

They plan to:

Increase home meals service ("Meals on Wheels") charges by a whopping 28%

Increase Home Care charges by a staggering 36%

Introduce charges for day services

End the Dial-a-Ride Service

Sell off 13 residential care homes

Close 4 Day Centres

Other areas that are facing the axe include:

Closing Gedling's Household Waste and Recycling Centre

End School Uniform Allowances for most families on low income

End concessionary bus fares before 9.30am

Bus shelters to be cleansed less often

Originally the Tories planned cutting back on spending for road gritting but following the recent winter freeze they realised that that this would be too much even for their own supporters.

Whilst the Tories are proposing to cut public services left, right and centre they have found money to pay for a top "spin doctor" with a salary of more than £71,000. The role of the new Service Director of Communications will be to help the County Council manage its reputation. Liberal Democrat County Councillor Jason Zadrozny said: "It just shows where the administration place their priorities - on spin over services really. They would much rather have someone who can do their Alastair Campbell work for them rather than doing frontline services."