Tourist information centre plans dropped as council waits for Government cuts decision

Posted by The Journal on Jan 30, 10 10:51 AM in Councils

Beleaguered council bosses in Northumberland have been left anxiously waiting for a key Government decision on whether they will have to find a further ÃÂ£11m in "horrendous" budget cuts.

County council leaders expected to be told yesterday whether ministers will allow them to use a financial loophole to avoid having to make almost ÃÂ£30m in savings this year.

But last night - as the authority revealed it has dropped plans to close a number of tourist information centres in Northumberland - there had still been no decision from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).

A meeting of the Liberal Democrat executive was adjourned yesterday to await an answer from Whitehall on whether the council can 'capitalise' significant costs incurred through staff redundancies and potential losses from investment in collapsed Icelandic banks.

If the DCLG says yes, savings totalling around ÃÂ£18.7m are required in 2010/11. And a negative response would push the total up to ÃÂ£29.9m and require further cuts and efficiencies described as horrendous by senior councillors.

Yesterday's executive approved a package of savings based on the assumption the capitalisation request will be approved, which involves a 2.8% rise in council tax bills in April.

Executive member for corporate resources, Andrew Tebbutt, said a proposal to close several of the county's 13 tourist information centres (TICs) had now been dropped, and the ÃÂ£71,250 saving identified elsewhere. The TICs earmarked for closure had not been publicly identified, but were understood to be those in Wooler, Amble, Corbridge, Bellingham and Haltwhistle.

The council will now hold discussions with other organisations, including Northumberland Tourism, on more cost-effective ways of delivering the TIC service.

Last Nigel Jarvis, who runs the Four Wynds guest house on the Hadrian's Wall trail and chairs the Greenhead and Gilsland Tourism Association, welcomed the decision not to close any of the centres, particularly his local one at Haltwhistle.

"We are going to keep our eyes on this because I am a bit cynical, and I have concerns about shunting these TICs onto Northumberland Tourism. They could then say they don't have the money to keep them open."

The TIC decision is the latest in a number of proposed cuts which the Lib Dem administration has dropped following a hostile reaction from the public and staff.

Others have included closure of Ashington leisure centre, the axing of six low-usage branch libraries, reductions in winter salting and gritting of roads and a freeze on pay increments for 1,600 staff. Coun Tebbutt said yesterday: "We have listened to the public, as we said we would, and have responded in key areas."

He said the budget package includes a ÃÂ£1.5m saving through trimming the senior management structure and many positive measures to drive the new unitary authority forward. Around 500 posts will be shed, but many will be unfilled vacancies and more than 250 staff have expressed interest in voluntary redundancy."

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