SWINGEING cuts of £43 million from the Bolton Council budget over the next two years were approved tonight — but thousands of residents will benefit from a council tax freeze.

Councillors passed the motion by the ruling Labour group to drastically cut millions from the budget, which will mean up to 500 posts will be deleted from the council.

The measures rubber-stamped tonight include:

  • Centralising administration roles in the council, leading to around 200 jobs being lost
  • Reducing the amount of ‘face to face’ contact with the council by getting people to go online to get help or make complaints
  • Sharing workers, equipment and depots within environmental services with Wigan Council, meaning the loss of up to 60 jobs
  • Creating an ‘arms length’ company within the council to offer in-house social care services, saving between £2.5 million and £4 million in the long run as new starters will earn less than current employees

The latest round of cuts follow a difficult few years for the authority, as it has already slashed its expenditure by £100 million since 2010 resulting in the loss of 1,350 jobs.

Protestors gathered in and outside the Town Hall to heckle councillors as they attended the meeting, after the trades union council objected to the plans.

But also included in the budget was allocation of £4 million one-off revenue budgets, which will see £2 million given to The Octagon Theatre to support its redevelopment and £1.3 million provided to tackle flytipping and clean streets around the borough.

The remaining £700,000 will be used to top up a government grant in exchange for freezing council tax for Bolton ratepayers, as announced in The Bolton News last week.

Cllr Cliff Morris, leader of Bolton Council, said the level of cuts means the nature of the public sector will have to fundamentally change.

He told the meeting: “As a council we have not shied away from the economic reality of the past five years and we have managed to continue delivering important services to those who are most in need.

“But the reality which we now face is a level of cut that means we simply cannot deliver our services as they currently stand.

“As a council, we agree that managing the national budget deficit and getting the public finances in order is vital — but the truth is that despite the slogan and soundbites, we’re not all in this together — even the government seem to have given up trying to convince us that we are.”

During the three-hour meeting each of the opposition parties — Conservative, Liberal Democrats and UKIP — put forward amendments to the budget on a range of different priorities, but each failed to break the majority vote by Labour.

An extra £13 million from unallocated capital resources over budgets for the next two years was also earmarked, including a £5 million in the borough’s highways, £4 million to build a new Horwich Leisure Centre and £1 million for leisure and youth provision.