Most of Lancashire County Council cuts to come from frontline

Despite promising to focus cuts on ‘back-office functions’, County Hall’s rulers are today set to agree £179million cuts that will mostly come from reductions to services.

A council survey of residents found museums were the most favoured service for cuts, with care for elderly people deemed to be the most important.

This means vital services including adult social care, support for young people and road repairs will all be affected.

It has also been revealed that County Hall - which runs most of the services in Burnley, Chorley, Fylde, Hyndburn, Lancaster, Pendle, Preston, Ribble Valley, Rossendale, South Ribble, West Lancashire and Wyre - has £10million set aside for redundancy costs, a stark warning of the public sector job losses to come.

Today the council’s ruling Conservative cabinet will meet to agree the savings programme for the next three years.

Lancashire County Council, which employs more than 9,000 people from the east of the county, has so far offered staff the chance to take voluntary redundancy.

Bosses have so far refused to confirm how many jobs are at risk, but they have set aside £10million for ‘severance costs’ this year alone.

Details of its £179million spending cuts will be revealed today, with only the ‘back-office’ savings identified so far.

A total of £71.7million will be taken from the budget next year, £50million in 2012/13 and £57million in 2013/14. An increasing proportion - 84per cent in 2013/14 - will come from ‘service reductions’, a report to be presented to councillors said.

The annual Living in Lancashire Survey has also been published, ahead of the formal budget-setting meeting in March.

For the third year running, museums were the lowest ‘spending priority’, followed by country parks, open spaces and picnic sites.

The top priorities were services for older people, education and crime prevention.

Almost 80 per cent of people said council tax should be frozen.