DESPITE cutting £340m from its budget over the past seven years, Hampshire County Council has warned it still has to find another £140m in savings to meet its share of Whitehall’s reductions in local government grant as part of the Conservatives’ austerity measures.

County council chiefs at Winchester warned this week they will face the anticipated budget shortfall by April 2019.

The council’s recent consultation – called Balancing the Budget – highlighted some of the difficult decisions which must be made across all departments to find those savings.

The headline findings of the consultation were:

* The majority of respondents (65 per cent) agreed the county should continue with its financial strategy of targeting resources on those who need them most and planning ahead to secure savings early;

* Responses were relatively evenly split between those who tended to support changes to local services and those who did not – 50 per cent agreed, 45 per cent disagreed and five per cent had no view either way. Of all the options, this was respondents’ least preferred;

* Two-thirds of respondents agreed the council should raise existing charges or introduce new charges to help cover the costs of running some local services;

* More than half of respondents (57 per cent) agreed Hampshire should lobby the Government to vary the way some services are provided, and enable charging where the county council cannot levy a fee due to statutory restrictions;

*Of all the options presented, generating additional income was the most preferre;

*Respondents would prefer the council to continue with its plans to raise council tax in line with Government policy – half ranked this as their preferred approach to increasing council tax);

*Of all the options, increasing council tax was respondents’ second most preferred.

Bramshott and Liphook county councillor Floss Mitchell said: “It is going to be harder to make the further necessary savings because of the savings that have already been made and more radical and unavoidably difficult ways are being considered to make ends meet.

“That task is made even harder because so much of what the council does now is focused on heavily regulated essential services, especially for vulnerable children and adults.

“The policy is to share out the savings across departments in line with the departments’ individual budgets. Some of the measures being considered likely to affect residents across the county come from the economy transport and the environment budget from which savings of £19.5m must be made.

“Proposals include removing council bus subsidies which currently support 13 per cent of bus journeys across the county.

“An alternative proposal which would raise about £5m would be to charge a nominal fare of 50p per journey to those who have a free bus pass but that would require legislative change.”

The recent Bus Services Act allows local authorities bus franchising powers, including the ability to determine and specify the services to be provided in an area, with bus operators bidding to provide the services.

This will allow local authorities to specify the services passengers want and deliver an integrated network of services with co-ordinated timetables.

Mrs Mitchell added: “In addition, the network of household waste recycling centres is facing some significant changes, likely to involve several closures, which could be avoided were a small entry fee to be introduced – but again that is not permitted under current legislation. School crossing patrols are also at risk.

“Hampshire is working to identify different sources of funding to ensure that such services are preserved.

“However, unless there is a change in national government policy and in some cases legislation, the savings of £140m is not negotiable and any proposal which is rejected would have to be directly replaced with another proposal.

“I have written to East Hampshire MP Damian Hinds about these issues.”

The consultation findings have helped to inform and shape the final savings proposals that have now been considered by executive members. The council’s cabinet as a whole must next consider recommendations in October, before a final decision is made by the full council in November.

At that point, any proposed changes to services would be subject to further public consultations.