COUNCILLORS were meeting last night (Wednesday) to discuss cuts to key services in the borough.

Areas targeted for reductions were thought likely to include social services and education as the authority faces up to a further £7.4 million shortfall in Government funding.

In the past five years St Helens Council has saw its grants from the Government fall by £55 million. And despite continuous 'streamlining' of the workforce, councillors are still faced with the dilemma of having to make cuts in key areas.

At last night's meeting of the council's Policy and Resources Committee, officers were expected to present members with a detailed cost-cutting package. From that list councillors will have to choose which services are to suffer in order to balance the books.

Council leader Dave Watts said: "Despite year-on-year cuts by the Government we have always managed to balance the books without too much damage to public provision. Sadly, we have streamlined administration and other support areas so much so that we appear to have no option but to cut into actual key services.

"Much of this grant has been lost from North West councils to the London boroughs as our many comparisons with Westminster have shown. It is all the more ridiculous when the Government itself has admitted in three separate reports recently that St Helens is chronically under-funded."

The council has pledged to do its best to minimise the effect of cuts but the budget position has been worsened by last week's news from the Chancellor that there will be no money for public sector pay next year and that any increase would have to come from efficiency savings.

However, council chiefs say St Helens is one of the most cheaply-run councils in the country and would be hard pressed to streamline any further. It already has only four departments (down from 12 over the past 20 years) to serve the borough's 180,000 population - the lowest number of departments in the country for a metropolitan council. The council workforce has also been reduced by several hundred - mainly by natural wastage and voluntary redundancy.

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