LEADING members of Worcestershire County Council have been grilled in public on how they plan to make about £45 million in savings over the next four years.

Chief executive Trish Haines, council leader Dr George Lord, cabinet member for finance Adrian Hardman, and director of financial services Mike Weaver said while it is not yet clear where the axe will fall, frontline services will not escape unscathed.

However, a commitment has been made to keep spending on the council’s existing capital projects, albeit at a possible slower rate, and for a public consultation on the proposed cuts once they have been developed.

At yesterday’s overview and scrutiny committee meeting, members of the public were given a chance to pose questions or express their thoughts.

Members from older people’s forums were concerned about the low level of funding for adult social care that was already in place, while Alec Mackie, a retired press officer, who used to work for Hereford and Worcester County Council, called on chiefs to get rid of the “bloated bureaucracy” at County Hall. He said: “If you did that the vast majority of your council tax paying customers would not notice any difference whatsoever.”

However, chiefs argued that an incompetent backroom staff would ultimately impact on frontline services.

We previously reported in your Worcester News how the county council, which looks after roads, schools, libraries and museums, said it would need to shave the equivalent of about 15 per cent off its annual budget between 2011 and 2014.

The dire state of the nation’s finances is being blamed for the cuts, with officers and councillors expecting a lower revenue grant between that three-year period. Mrs Haines called for the county council, which has about £260 million of debt, to be more “radical” in its approach to delivering services. She said: “We can’t keep doing what we have been doing.”

She warned that if managers kept ‘salami-slicing’ budgets, some services could collapse.

Savings could be made by delivering services through private contract tenders, looking at developing more budget partnerships, such as with the local NHS, as well as looking at even more shared services with all of the county’s district councils.

Mrs Haines said making the savings will, at times, “feel rather uncomfortable” but promised a public consultation, which might be service specific, will take place.