Budget crisis takes Northamptonshire council into uncharted territory
This is like a slow-motion car crash you cant quite take your eyes off however much you’d like to. This story tells us:
Northamptonshire’s cuts will be felt in even its leafiest and most prosperous areas. Dig into the council’s cuts plans and you find an axe taken to highways budgets – less pothole filling, winter gritting and traffic light maintenance. The council expects legal challenges to these, too.
There is the removal of bus subsidies on rural routes connecting the county’s villages, another source of growing anger, and cuts to the county’s museums and heritage sites. If the council can charge for a service, or raise charges, it most likely will. Recycling centres may close; local charities will see grants disappear.
These are just the existing cuts plans: what is required in the next few months will take the council into uncharted territory. The two big areas of expenditure are adult and children’s social care. Expect tighter restrictions on who gets that care. The council has made clear that it will provide the legal minimum, to “those most in need only”.
The council’s Tory leader, Matthew Golby, promised that no vulnerable children would be put in danger despite the cuts and the council would meet its legal obligations to provide core services. Politically, he cannot say otherwise. In the next few months, his assertions will be severely tested.