Leicestershire faces £9.9m budget cuts and job losses

Staff at Leicestershire County Council are facing
job cuts and front line services will be hit as the authority looks to make
£9.9m of budget savings.

Child care, teenage pregnancy advice and vulnerable
people's services are under threat.

Officials at the authority have to find the savings
after the government made significant grant reductions.

The council said the full implications of the staff
reductions "could not be quantified at present".

A council cabinet document describes it as
"early days" and said consultations would be necessary.

Cut completely

The document adds: "However, it is likely that
the reduction will have implications for front line services and staff
reductions will have to be made which cannot be quantified at present."

One grant for children and young people's services
looks set to be cut by £2.6m - an effective 24% reduction.

A £300,000 grant for the supporting people
administration could be cut completely.

A decision on how this will affect services is set
to be made by the county's Vulnerable People's Partnership.

Road safety and other transport initiatives are
facing cuts along with the loss of £200,000 earmarked for future planning.

No-one was available from the public sector union
Unison to comment on the announcement.

'Mitigate impacts'

Leicestershire County Council leader David Parsons
said: "I want to be honest with the people of Leicestershire. These cuts
to direct grants are much more than we had expected and will undoubtedly hit
frontline services.

"They have been imposed on us by the
government.

"We have no alternative, as this is direct
grant, to pass this on to the people of Leicestershire but we do it with a very
heavy heart.

"At a time we will be facing huge cuts, we
ought to be honest with the people of Leicestershire and say what is happening
and we will in due course say how we can perhaps mitigate the worst impacts of
what is going on."