Shropshire Council meets with town and parish councils to discuss future of delivering community-based services

Shropshire Council yesterday (Tuesday 14 June 2016) met with town and parish councils from across the county to hear their views and help resolve concerns around the challenges if they were to take on council services identified at risk in the council’s budget.

Since the announcement of the revised Financial Strategy which indicated that the council has to save £61m by 2018/19, Shropshire Council have been in extensive discussions with town and parish councils to explain its financial challenges and to look at options to secure a sustainable future for local community based services such as libraries, customer services, leisure centres, youth activities and museums.

The meeting, presented by Shropshire Council Leader Malcolm Pate and Shropshire Council chief executive Clive Wright, was attended by the majority of town and parish Councils and gave local councils the opportunity to voice their concerns and challenges.

Concerns raised included the pace and timeframe within which the transition needed to be carried out, lack of financial information, the difficulties and challenges in raising income and council tax precepts and the risks involved to successfully maintaining and sustaining these services.

Representatives from Ludlow, Broseley and Shrewsbury spoke about their experiences both good and bad and gave examples of how they were approaching the challenge from looking at merging operations with other organisations to joining up with other neighbouring parish councils to work together and seek solutions.

Although the meeting could not at this time resolve some of the issues addressed, the majority of those attending did agree to the mechanisms to help resolve the challenges faced by town and parish councils, in particularly those in more rural areas.  It was proposed and agreed that those parish and town councils who have not already come together could consider working together in clusters, with the view to meet again with the council in three to four weeks’ time with representatives from each cluster.

Cecilia Motley, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for rural services and communities said:

“Shropshire Council greatly values our relationships with town and parish councils. We are encouraged by new and increasing levels of cooperation to maintain and improve local services in the face of huge government cuts. By working together we can reduce the impact on our communities and in some cases make improvements.

“Several town and parish councils have raised concerns over the pace and extent of changes proposed and we are listening and working with them to resolve these. Other councils are steaming ahead and taking advantage of opportunity to extend their service and the value they deliver to local communities.

“We know there is no one-size fits all solution and because town and parish councils are in different stages of development with taking on services we will need to agree different solutions that are fair to all.

“Today’s meeting has given us an opportunity to hear the different points of views, concerns and challenges our town and parish colleagues are facing and to look at solutions to overcome these.

“The meeting was constructive and I hope we can now progress and together solve the very real problems that are being experienced.”

It was reiterated at the meeting that although everyone is working at a different pace, there was still an urgent need for plans to be submitted to the council, to inform them whether parish and town councils wish to take on all or some of the community-based services.

Gwilym Butler, Shropshire Council’s deputy Cabinet member for town and parish councils added;

“Both Shropshire Council and parish and town councils know how vital and important these services are to local communities and closing them is by no means what the council wants to do. The stark reality is that Shropshire Council physically won’t have the money to deliver them.

“We understand the challenges that the changes and innovation presents and we are confident that we will be able to support in appropriate ways, including assisting with resources and where necessary re-plan timescales.

“Shropshire Council will continue to collaborate and work together with our colleagues. We are not imposing the transfer of responsibility for local services onto town and parish councils, but do want to give those councils the opportunity to consider what could be possible in the future.

“We hope that highlighting the risk of closure of these community services will encourage further efforts to save them. And where there is a desire to take on this challenge and help save our community-based services, then we will work with those to ensure these services continue to flourish in our local communities.”

It was agreed that town and parish councils will confirm their ambition to take on services currently run by Shropshire Council and will produce a plan by September. Shropshire Council will support and assist this process.

Further information

It’s been well documented that Shropshire Council is faced with the need to make £77m of savings by 2020/21 due to the combination of inflationary increases in costs, demographic pressure, particularly in adult social care, and cuts in government grants.

However, further pressures identified in this year’s Financial Strategy published in February 2016, has highlighted a worse position than previously forecast, with £61m savings now required by 2018/19.

Over the past year, the council through its ‘Big Conversation’ have informed residents of the financial challenges ahead and have sought the views of the public to where it should prioritise its diminishing budget. The key findings from the first phase of Shropshire’s ‘Big Conversation’, indicated that services for vulnerable children and adults were perceived as priorities, where residents felt savings couldn’t be made.  Such priorities are aligned with those protected services highlighted in February’s financial strategy.

It is predicted that 87% of the council’s resources will be used to pay for protected services such as adult’s and children’s social care and safeguarding, domestic waste disposal, concessionary travel and school transport, which would leave just 13% remaining to be spent on the remaining 150 plus services that the council currently provides to Shropshire people.

Because of this, Shropshire Council is having to make some very tough choices affecting spending across all services and the projected funding shortfall of £61m by 2018/19, will result in significant cutbacks or could, in the worst case scenario – closure of discretionary services such as leisure, libraries, museums, public open spaces and support for youth activities.

Shropshire Council is currently working with key partners to see how it can close the funding gap for the operation of these services.  This approach was also highlighted in the feedback from the Big Conversation whereby residents agreed that savings could be made through greater partnership-working to provide integrated services for the community.

The council has met with town and parish councils to explain the challenge it faces and where there are other opportunities that the funds to operate these could be found, for example through town and parish councils generating their own income to fund to these costs.

Shropshire Council’s will continue to work collaboratively with town and parish councils to secure a sustainable future for locally delivered services along with providing clarity on what these services could be and the timelines it will be working to.