Wirral braces for Council cuts - and soon we'll know where they'll be made

Two months after a damning report into its finances, Wirral Council is set to make cuts to bring its budget under control.

At the start of November last year, two reports, one on finance carried out by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), and another on governance by Ada Burns, gave damning verdicts.

The reports included strong criticism of elected councillors and officers, stating that the 'prevailing culture' at the council prior to the pandemic had been to avoid difficult financial decisions, meaning the council's emergency reserves had been dramatically reduced in recent years.

On December 1, Stuart Fair, Wirral Council's interim finance director, said savings of £27m were required in the next financial year for the council to balance its budget.

As yet, the council has been tight-lipped on how it will make the savings.

But it is understood that before next Monday the local authority will publish its plans to save the £27m required.

Until then, it is not known exactly what the council will propose cutting and what might go.

In the build-up to Wirral Council's 2021 budget, proposals to close the Williamson Art Gallery and Europa Pools were put forward.

However, the final budget scrapped this plan, with The Williamson staying open, other services such as school crossing patrols saved and Europa's competition pool remaining open.

But last year's budget was only required to make up a shortfall of £16.5m, whereas the council has been told it must save £27m this time around.

In November's government reports on Wirral Council, the authority was told to consider closing libraries, leisure centres and golf clubs, as well as selling Wallasey and Birkenhead Town Halls.

But it is not known which of these ideas might be brought forward and there could be other money saving proposals.

Wirral Council has a Labour leader, with the party having more councillors than any other, although it does not have a majority and must work with other groups to get a budget through the council.

Commenting at the end of 2021, a spokesperson for Wirral Labour said: "We have now been told by the Conservative government that we must reduce our budget by £27m this year.

"We want to do this by protecting the most vulnerable and by updating and improving our services by delivering them in different ways. There will be big changes, we have no choice."

After the initial plans are published they will be put to Wirral Council's policy and resources committee, a cross-party group of councillors which replaced the cabinet in 2020, on January 17.

If the proposals pass this hurdle they must still be approved at a further meeting of the same committee on February 15 and full council on February 28.