Councillor Lezley Picton, leader of Shropshire Council said:
“Like many other councils across the UK, we are facing an urgent and unprecedented financial challenge. Demand for many of our services has risen, especially since the pandemic, and the cost of providing these services has also increased. Local authorities are large and complex organisations and in Shropshire a savings target of £62.5m represents a reduction in our planned revenue spending from £824m to £761m, a reduction of 7.5% this year. Still large, but more representative of our position.
“More than 75% of our net budget is spent on social care. The number of children looked after in Shropshire has increased by 85% since 2020 and care placements have become more expensive.
“Shropshire is a rural, sparsely-populated county with complex care needs, which adds to the financial pressure.
“At this critical point, we are taking very difficult decisions to overcome the challenge we face in this financial year and we know there will be an impact for our communities and our colleagues.
“We are introducing a new charge for garden waste collections and have reviewed all our services to decide what we must reduce, pause and stop altogether. Many of these plans are now well advanced and people in Shropshire will notice this more and more as we reduce and remove services, and those that we must provide we do so at a minimum level required. These are decisions we do not want to make but we now have no choice.
We will be a smaller council overall and expect our workforce to reduce by around 540 full-time equivalent posts to make the savings we have to make. We need to prioritise services for people who need us most and find new ways to provide all services as efficiently as we can such as through digital tools – which can be better and cheaper.
“Our Medium-Term Financial Strategy includes savings for this financial year of £62.5m, and this includes a contribution to our general fund reserves, a prudent decision to increase our resilience and lay the foundations for a more sustainable future.”