Consultations on Lancashire County Council Budget Begin

County Hall - facing cuts

Lancashire County Council is urging local people to have their say on how it plans to tackle the huge savings it needs to make.

Over the next five years to 2020/21 the council must deliver savings of £262m on top of those agreed within previous budget processes.

The first of a series of consultations has now been launched, on plans for the library service, which could see up to 40 as-yet- unnamed libraries close, the withdrawal of subsidy for local bus services (already raising concerns for night workers and parents) and ceasing to provide Countryside Services, which will impact Conder Green and the Crook O'Lune in the Lancaster area.

There are also opportunities to comment on the budget proposals as a whole and for community groups to express an interest in taking over council buildings or services.

Further consultations will be launched shortly.

County Councillor Jennifer Mein, Leader of Lancashire County Council, said: "We face an unprecedented financial challenge as a result of relentless cuts in central government funding combined with a rising demand for our services and we now have to take a number of very difficult decisions.

"We know that based on current spending and forecast demand for services, the council will not have sufficient financial resources to meet its statutory obligations by April 2018 and the council will need to rely heavily on spending its reserves in order to set a balanced budget for 2016/17 and 2017/18.

"Our main priority is protecting the most vulnerable in our society and that obviously influences how we will make the necessary savings. The council can clearly not afford to continue delivering all of the services it does now, so this is a hard issue for councillors and our communities alike to face up to. However we are open to any ideas that people may have on how we can lessen the impact of savings and I would urge people to have their say."

• Full details of the consultation process are available at the Lancashire County Council website, http://www.lancashire.gov.uk, under Budget proposal consultation

Why Not Write To Your Local Councillors or MPs about these proposed cuts?

• Contact Your City Councillor - List By Ward Here

• Contact Your County Councillor - Listed Alphabetically Here

• Contact Cat Smith, MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood

• Contact David Morris, MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale