Somerset CAB to be cut £500,000?

January2015

And the confidence level to deliver the savings is 90% because "This funding is discretionary...." Enough said

Don't get me wrong, as someone who worked in local authority finance for over 25 years I am the first to admit we were overfunded and wasted money (admitted with hindsight) in the late 90s and early 2000s.
Massive cuts were definitely needed and deliverable.

However, it is extremely short sighted in my view to savagely cut third sector grants that are delivering a service on a shoestring. They may have done impact assessments etc., but I bet they were 'paper exercises' and the outcome was decided before the meeting anyway.

It's always easy to slash budgets - look for the big numbers on spreadsheet:( It takes skill and great management to ensure essential services, such as CAB, can continue to deliver.

IMPORTANT NOTE I'm not saying I have the skills by the way, but whilst there are lots of headlines about councils in severe financial difficulty, there are also many councils that have planned for these severe cuts - because they did know they were coming - and who, whilst not overflowing with funds, are managing and delivering great services.

jwil

poppy10 wrote: »

Hard to have any sympathy to be honest - how can you vote in a tory council and then complain about cuts

Plenty of us didn't vote for them...

January2015 wrote: »

And the confidence level to deliver the savings is 90% because "This funding is discretionary...." Enough said

Don't get me wrong, as someone who worked in local authority finance for over 25 years I am the first to admit we were overfunded and wasted money (admitted with hindsight) in the late 90s and early 2000s.
Massive cuts were definitely needed and deliverable.

However, it is extremely short sighted in my view to savagely cut third sector grants that are delivering a service on a shoestring. They may have done impact assessments etc., but I bet they were 'paper exercises' and the outcome was decided before the meeting anyway.

It's always easy to slash budgets - look for the big numbers on spreadsheet:( It takes skill and great management to ensure essential services, such as CAB, can continue to deliver.

IMPORTANT NOTE I'm not saying I have the skills by the way, but whilst there are lots of headlines about councils in severe financial difficulty, there are also many councils that have planned for these severe cuts - because they did know they were coming - and who, whilst not overflowing with funds, are managing and delivering great services.

They are pretty much cutting everything that isn't statutory.

They've spent the last however many years crowing about how prudent they are and not raising Council Tax. Now everything is being slashed to the bone.