Lights off, burial fees to rise, and jobs at risk in proposed £27m Dudley Council cuts

Burial fees will rise and street lights will be switched off after midnight in the latest round of council cuts in Dudley.

Streets and parks will not be maintained as often and budgets for road repairs and resurfacing will also be slashed.

Finance bosses at Dudley Council have revealed proposals for £27 million of savings out of £57 million required by 2017/18.

Finance boss Councillor Stuart Turner said he would be 'as innovative as possible' to protect key services in the borough.

He has also warned that more than 300 jobs could be at risk in the next three years.

The budget proposals include turning off some street lights after midnight to reduce energy bills, saving £100,000 by 2018.

Maintenance of parks around the borough would be reduced to claw back £265,000.

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Increasing burial fees is expected to bring in £520,000 in the next three years.

Savings will also be made by transferring the management of the New Bradley Hall care home in Kingswinford to a private firm.

The proposals, which also include changes to youth support services and Dudley Performing Arts, will go before cabinet members at a meeting on Wednesday next week.

Savings of £22.9m are proposed for 2015/16, moving up to £25.3 million by 2016/17 and £27.4 million by 2017/18.

But the council has warned it faces a deficit of approaching £30m by 2017/18 if additional savings are not found.

Councillor Stuart Turner, cabinet member for finance, said: "The significant cuts in government funding have made setting a budget with the required savings more and more difficult.

"We can reassure every Dudley borough resident that we will be as innovative as possible to look at every option of finding the savings in order to protect key services.

"We can also assure our staff that we will continue to work tirelessly to minimise the need for compulsory redundancies."

Steve Beardsmore, branch secretary for Unison ,said the union was supporting staff.

"This is obviously bad news because it means people are going to be losing their jobs.

"The people that are remaining are going to be asked to do more and more work to fill the gaps.

"Everyone is feeling very demoralised. We've had this for the past four years and it looks like we will have for another three to four years," he added.

More than 700 positions have been axed during the past four years. Among the job losses are management positions at the borough's children's centres.

By 2018, the council will need to have made a total of £117 million of savings since 2011.

Councillor Turner said this means the authority will be left with around half of the funds in real terms it had at its disposal before cutbacks started.