CLOSE the tourist information centre, increase some car parking charges and open Worcester’s museums and art gallery less often – that is what people want if the city council has to make cuts.

People want councillors to do all that they can to at the very least maintain the number of litter and dog bins – they would prefer more – while riverside litter picking, play areas and CCTV should also be shielded from the axe.

They would also like to see more support for businesses and have urged the council to seek ways of attracting funding to improve the city centre if possible.

Both of those initiatives have already been given funds after money raised through efficiency savings matured early and while people are not that bothered about improvements to the city’s parks £250,000, also from the one-off pot of cash, was set aside for Fort Royal Park at full council Tuesday night sparking a political row.

We reported last month how the city council was asking the public how they would balance the budget and paid a research group £15,000 to get residents’ views on 20 different service areas ranging from bins to business support, parking charges to play areas, and sports centres to seagulls.

The first thing Worcester people would do if cuts had to be made would close the tourist information centre. Councillor Simon Geraghty, leader, said while people might not use the centre he indicated closing it will probably not happen.

“If we want visitors to come to the city and have a strong retail economy then having the centre is quite important,” he said.

On a sliding scale of cutbacks (see panel below) residents indicated they would be happy for charges to rise by 10p per hour in short stay car parks and would rather see youth centres merged and sports centres reduced than lose any litter or dog bins, for example.

The consultation attracted 394 responses – 255 through face-to-face interviews and 139 from an online questionnaire – but some Labour members do not believe it is representative as four per cent of the responses came from ethnic minority groups.

The Conservatives said the consultation carried out by Research for Today deliberately got results from a sample which reflects city’s cultural make-up.

The city council made £1.9 million savings this year but another £1 million might have to be shaved off the budget over the next three or four years depending on what central government dishes out in the future.

Any potential cuts are on top of the £4.5 million efficiency savings programme due to end in the year 2014.

For more on the debate on how the council should spend its surplus see tomorrow’s Worcester News.

PEOPLE PICK THEIR OWN CUTBACKS

What people would do if – things stay the same:

• Close the tourist information centre.
• Fund start-up grants for businesses.
• Seek match-funding for city centre improvements.
• £125,000 savings had to be made: Open the city’s museums and art gallery one day less a week.
• A further £250,000 savings had to be made: Increase charges in short stay car parks by 10p per hour.
• Cut grants to arts and cultural groups by 20 per cent.
• Reduce floral displays on roundabouts.
• Not fund tourism events.

A further £375,000 savings had to be made: Merge two youth centres.

• Reduce sports centres.
• Scrap the Christmas lights.

A further £500,000 savings had to be made:

• Clean streets just once every three weeks.