By Matt Jarram, Local Democracy Reporter
Nottingham City Council will reveal which children’s centres will close on February 22 as part of plans to claw back millions of pounds in savings.
Proposals include closing six of its nine children’s centres, reducing youth provision, charging motorists for having a second or third car in residential areas as well as charging for bulky waste.
The council also plans to cut 91 roles across the organisation, of which 23 are currently vacant.
Leader of the Labour-run authority, Cllr David Mellen, spoke to councillors at an overview and scrutiny meeting on Wednesday, February 9, ahead of the all-important announcement.
The council needs to save £38m over the next four years and must show where the savings will fall at an Executive Board meeting on February 22.
The council is under the watchful eye of a government-appointed Improvement and Assurance Board, chaired by Sir Tony Redmond.
He must report back quarterly to ministers on the progress made.
If the council fails to show where these savings will fall by March, then government commissioners could be called in to run the authority in the future.
Councillors questioned the leader on the improvements being made and if the authority had created a balanced budget.
Cllr Mellen said the council’s previous £1bn figure of debt was now “out of date” and its borrowing had “reduced significantly.” He said selling off assets such as land and buildings it no longer required had also generated cash.
He said: “We have some very high value assets in the city and we are wanting to make sure progress is made – such as Angel Row and the Guildhall.
“Some of our asset sales are small – a couple of hundred thousand pounds for an old community centre in my ward – and other things we need to plan for.
“We need to make sure we get the right price, and it goes through all the stages it needs to.”
He said more than 700 people had responded to the public consultation about the £12.2m of cuts it needs to find this year.
He said many of the responses had been around children’s centres and youth provision. Some had also said the council should charge for more waste services.
“We are still considering those responses to see if any changes need to be made. They will be coming out in the budget papers next week,” he added.
Cllr Anne Peach (Lab), chair of the scrutiny committee, asked if the government had responded in relation to the improvements being made.
Cllr Mellen said despite a report being sent to them in November, the minister had still not come back with any feedback.
He said: “It is a source of some frustration – the reports were submitted by Sir Tony in November.
“We have got our plan – and the improvement board are not hanging around and saying ‘we can’t do anything until we get the response from government’.
“They are pushing us hard on the budget – and the four-year nature of the plan. When the response comes from government it will be considerably out of date.
“The latest messages (from the improvement and assurance board) are ‘can we set a four year budget plan?’ ‘We need a four year budget plan not a one year budget plan with other bits added on’.
“They are pleased with our consultation work – they have got a job to do and I do believe they want us to succeed.”
