A TOWN hall bid to slash more than £30 million from the council’s budget will result in deep cuts to Bury’s public services.

Council leaders have launched a public consultation on the plans today, which could see £32 million being axed from services over the next three years.

Residents are being warned that this latest round of major cutbacks will lead to significant changes to health and social care provisions and neighbourhood services.

The council has already been forced to implement £65 million worth of budget cuts in the last six years, which amounts to almost half of its total budget in 2010.

Cllr Rishi Shori, leader of Bury Council, said: “Since 2010, Bury’s central government support has been cut by around 40 per cent.

“Coupled with increasing service pressures such as social care, this has meant £65 million of cuts in the last six years. This represents 46 per cent of what the council’s budget was in 2010.

“The bad news is that the trend is set to continue until at least the end of the current Parliament, with a further 24 per cent reduction in our funding proposed, and continuing economic and demographic pressures.

“We estimate that Bury Council will have to make cuts of £32 million over the next three years in order to set a legal, balanced, and sustainable budget.”

It is proposed that, between 2017 and 2020, £7.3 million will be cut from the council’s Resource and Regulation budget, £17 million from Communities and Wellbeing, and £7.7 million from Children, Young People and Culture.

It is expected that Council Tax will rise by 3.94 per cent in each of the three years, including a new Social Care Precept to help cope with adult social care pressures. That would mean an increase of £53 per year for an average Band D property.

Cllr Shori added Bury was unfairly funded, receiving just £294 per head of population compared to the England average of £342 and the Greater Manchester average of £391.

He said that, in recognition of the fact that major money-saving measures cannot be implemented in a single financial year, the council would set a three-year budget in February 2017.

The changes will mean the council working with the NHS Bury CCG to integrate health and social care services, increasingly becoming an “enabler” of neighbourhood services as opposed to a provider, and looking to take advantage of the Greater Manchester’s devolved powers, Cllr Shori added.

Cllr Jane Lewis, cabinet member for finance, said: “Balancing our budget over the next three years will be incredibly difficult as a result of the Government’s cuts but we will do our very best to protect services, particularly those for vulnerable people.

“It was appalling that in the Autumn Statement the Government chose to ignore the warnings from right across the political spectrum that social care services are close to collapse and that an injection of funding was vital.

“Even NHS leaders said that the best way to help the NHS was to provide funding for social care, and yet there was nothing.

“Despite this we will focus our efforts on reforming services, on growing our income base and on helping people to help themselves.”

Consultation begins today and runs until January 31, with the council due to set the budget on February 22.

Budget presentations will also be given at all six of the next round of Township Forum meetings in the New Year.

To view the budget proposals, visit bury.gov.uk/Budget201720. Comments can be submitted by emailing Budget201720@bury.gov.uk, calling 0161 253 5696, or writing to Budget201720, Bury Council, Knowsley Street, Bury, BL9 OSW.