Councils, fire and police save £34m (From Worcester News)

Councils, fire and police save £34m

1:30pm Friday 12th March 2010 in

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COUNCILS across south Worcestershire, the police and fire service have all made more than £34 million savings in the last two years.

The efficiency savings have been made through a combination of efforts which have included councils sharing services and upgrading IT systems.

An efficiency saving is recorded when the cost of an activity falls but its effectiveness or delivery is not reduced.

All councils are required to measure and report the value of efficiency savings they have achieved since April 2008. They have been published in council tax leaflets which are currently being sent out to all households across the county.

Once overall budgets have been taken into account, Worcester City Council has been one of the best performers having saved nearly £2 million in ongoing costs the last two years – equivalent to £62 per Band D dwelling, which is £21 above the national average for similar authorities.

Leader Councillor Simon Geraghty said: “This is really good news. These savings are not down to cuts but are efficiency measures where we have the same output with less resources or increased output with the same resources.

“It’s not that we have stopped doing something.” The efficiencies made by Worcester City Council have helped to contribute towards the £3.1 million savings it has made in the last couple of years.

The council has identified that it will need to make a further £1.4 million in efficiency savings by 2014 but that could change depending on the grant settlements coming from any future government.

Elsewhere, Malvern Hills District Council and Wychavon District Council have saved more than £1.4 million each over the last two years.

Worcestershire County Council has saved more than £14.5 million.

We previously reported in your Worcester News how all seven councils across the county have agreed to merge more services which should yield more than £1.8 million savings across the board in due course.

However, about 50 people look set to lose their jobs as a result of the mergers which affect regulatory services – which includes licensing, trading standards and environmental health officers – internal audit, and property services, although Wyre Forest District Council has not signed up to the latter two.

In the last two years Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Authority has saved £631,000 and West Mercia Police Authority more than £14.2 million.