Ironically given it is Valentine’s Day tonight the council’s Conservative-led cabinet will meet to agree the cuts they will be proposing to the rest of the council. The idea that front line services will be protected has been consigned to history. As I’ve said before, they are going to be cutting everything but the grass. That’s partially the fault of the national Conservatives, cutting too far and too fast of course, but we haven’t seen much anglng for a better settlement from our local coalition.
But looking at the cuts they have chosen it seems to me that the proposals are for the apparently “easy options” of cutting programs and front line workers, like the work of the Excellence Clusters (especially the one for South Reading, WEC) rather than looking carefully at how the council is run and seeking more in efficiency savings.