"Show your working" is the instruction of many a maths teacher to pupils who only show the final result in their calculations. Well, UNISON has done exactly that in its efforts to prevent job losses and protect front line services.
The union has demonstrated categorically to Notts County Council that there is £28m of "easy money" to offset the Tory led council's proposed £33.3m of cuts. A summary of the potential savings are shown below (all figures in £m)
Use of surplus from projected out turn for 2009/10 - 5.00
Cancel setting up of the new reserves - 5.40
Use of reserves - 2.00
Savings on Agency workers - 1.90
Savings on Consultants - 0.26
Council tax increase of 3 per cent - 9.00
Delete cabinet posts - 0.04
Do not recruit to the Service Director Communications Post - 0.09
Charge Building Schools for the Future to Capital Reserves - 1.20
Additional Loss in Money from Supporting People Grant - (0.33)
Growth in Taxbase - 1.53
Saving in Redundancy Costs - 2.00
Total - 28.09
If you want to see the full details of the savings click here to see the letter UNISON sent to the council as part of the official consultation exercise. As we've reported before because of UNISON pressure the council have reversed £4.6m of their cuts and it remains to be seen if the council take on board our proposals about the full £28m.
Despite what many commentators would have you believe there is nothing inevitable about public service cuts and this work goes to show that if we are prepared to go digging around in council accounts and financial plans it is possible to demonstrate that the money is there.
