SBDC must make "significant savings" says council leader

The council is responsible for recycling, street cleaning, leisure centres, refuse collection, cemeteries and planning, and funds arts and entertainments projects.
It is preparing to make savings of £544,000 next year from its budget of £9.8 million and a total of £1.95 million in savings over the next four years.
The savings have been proposed by council leader Adrian Busby in response to anticipated cuts in government funding and a fall in the value of the council's investments; both a direct result of the recession.
In a report to full council on Tuesday Councillor Busby said there was also a "pressing" need to reduce the extent to which the council is using reserves after it spent £883,000 of its £2 million revenue reserves budget last year.
The report said: "There is a need to generate significant savings over the next three years to bring income and expenditure into balance and halt the decline in reserves."
The report identified £481,000 of savings for the next financial year.
Most of this is achievable via a change in accounting rules which dictate how the council pays rent on its offices at Tatling End, but there are also plans to cut donations to the voluntary sector, reduce spending on leisure, stop producing the council's magazine South Bucks report, and cut jobs. The council is already preparing to outsource several departments to the private sector, as reported last week. The report said the council should consider reducing funding to services it is not legally required to, such as the Beaconsfield Festival of Lights.
Cllr Busby told the Advertiser: "We have over £20 million of capital reserves and we rely heavily on interest from this money. We are in for a challenging time and we are having to prepare early. We've got to work smarter. We want to keep the front line cuts to the least we possibly can."
He said increased funding for community development projects would be available from the Bucks Foundation.