MORE than 6,600 people have responded to Wirral Council’s budget consultation, a record for any comparable exercise in the UK.

Views are being sought on how spending reductions for next year should be made.

The initiative is called "Future Council" and invites responders to come up with creative ideas to save £2.5m.

Town hall chief executive Graham Burgess said: “The council has managed to limit the impact on frontline services from the significant cuts to our Government grant that we have been faced with.

"Every year of austerity makes it more difficult to protect services and this has made it absolutely necessary to look at fundamentally changing how we as a council function.

“Last year we saved more than £5m by reducing senior management, and this year we are committed to finding a further £1.5m from the same area.

“Unfortunately, it is inevitable in the end that there will be some impact on services. We need to be more creative and innovative in how we focus rapidly shrinking resources on protecting the most vulnerable.

“I urge everyone in Wirral to have their say."

Mr Burgess added that despite having already saved more than £100m, Wirral has to find a further £45m of savings by 2017,  "by which point the authority’s grant from central government will have been cut by 57% in five years."

However, during a visit to the Globe's offices in July, Prime Minister David Cameron claimed the council's spending power had actually increased: "Let’s be clear, in terms of the money that Wirral gets, it gets £169 per household more than the average for England, so I don’t think it has an unfair funding settlement.

"In terms of the spending that it needs to do, this year it is spending £359m.

"That is actually more in cash terms than it was spending in 2008, when it was spending £345m.

"I think they need to look at uncollected council tax, and they need to look at using the reserves that they have, which are significant."

The consultation asks people to comment on budget options covering four themes of ‘Income and Efficiency’, ‘Delivering Differently’, ‘Managing Demand’ and ‘Customer Contact’.

Proposals include:

  • Charging for car parking at Fort Perch Rock and countryside parks.
  • Removing school crossing patrols in some locations that have existing road safety measures such as pedestrian crossings.
  • Introducing joint services with the NHS at Girtrell Court respite home.
  • Reducing some opening hours in smaller community libraries.

To have your say on the Council’s proposals, click here or visit any One Stop Shop or library to access the online survey.

The consultation closes at noon, next Friday, October 31.