Pendle News Room

They will be reminded of the seriousness of the Council’s forecast financial position and that difficult decisions have got to be made.

If the Council fails to make the savings currently needed, the shortfall can only be made up from limited reserves.

This will push the amount of savings it needs to make to the next year and the reserves will dry up much more quickly.

Estimated spending reductions of £4.3m need to be made over the next three years and councillors will receive more detail about the financial forecasts and options from the Council’s Management Team.

In 2017/18 the Council needs to save £1.0m on top of savings already agreed for next year (2016/17) of £0.6m. Further savings of £1.7m have to be found in 2018/19 and £1.6m in 2019/20.

Details on budgets and reductions are shown on Pendle Council's website  www.pendle.gov.uk/financialchallenges

Councillor Mohammed Iqbal, Leader of Pendle Council, said: “Our priority is to protect investment in the services which matter most to our residents and businesses.

“At our Executive meeting we’ll have an initial look at the options being put forward by Management Team.

“I stress they are just Management Team’s proposals at this stage and no decisions have been taken.

“The budget will be set by councillors so we’re not obliged to accept any of the proposals.”

Councillor Tony Greaves, Deputy Leader of Pendle Council, oversees the Council’s finances.

He added: “The government is again slashing our grants and councils, like ours in the North of England, are among the worst hit.

“We’re looking at different ways to cut our spending and raise our income, but we’re now very close to being forced to stop doing some quite important things.”

The full budget report is available from Agendas, reports and minutes on www.pendle.gov.uk 

The Council’s budget and Council Tax will be agreed at the Council meeting in February 2017.