THE proposed swingeing cuts by cash-strapped Redditch Council, which have caused so much anger and distress among our readers over the last fortnight , will not go ahead.

Forge Mill Needle Museum, Arrow Valley Countryside Centre, the One Stop Shops and the post of arts development officer have all been saved from £1.158 million cash-saving cutbacks, it was announced yesterday.

Council Leader Phil Mould also said the town's annual bonfire would remain and council tax would not rise above inflation.

The announcements were made following a meeting held behind closed doors on Monday night, despite protestations from many councillors that any debate should be held in public.

Cuts will be made to jobs in youth and neighbourhood development and neighbourhood wardens and one director's and a personal assistant's post will go.

The Woodrow Welcome Centre will close and cuts will be made to neighbourhood group budgets and councillors' allowances.

The price of the Reddicard will rise by about £5.

And while Redditch Market will not close, it will no longer be subsidised by the council and will have to find its annual costs of £24,000 from elsewhere.

But opposition councillors have criticised the Labour group for including museum and the countryside centre in the basket of cost-cutting options, claiming they were just "red herrings".

Conservative group leader Carole Gandy believes the public was duped into thinking these facilities would actually be considered - and even used to soften the blow of job cuts - when they were saved.

"These items were put on this list to pad it out, to make the public believe there were choices to be made."

But Mr Mould said: "I do not try to make my life any harder than it is. If leaving them off had been an option, I would have done it.

"If we were looking at £1.158 million and left the options at £1.2 million, that wouldn't give people a choice. If you give yourself a wide range, it may have made people's lives difficult for a few weeks but it helps get things right."

Borough Director Chris Smith said they hoped to have ideas of posts to be affected finalised within the next 10 working days, followed by consultation with staff and trade unions.

"We're attempting to keep redundancies to a minimum but I cannot rule out that there will be an impact," he said.

"Those affected will have opportunities to be re-deployed to other vacant posts in the authority but as to whether those posts are appropriate to people at that time, we cannot tell."

Mr Mould said they would be looking to prevent a similar situation in the future, perhaps by looking regularly at the council's budget.

"From time to time, every council needs to delve deep down and look at what it spends. That should put us in a very firm position for the future," he added.

Mr Mould denied the situation was caused by the AIR Festival and claimed it would have arisen within six months whether the two-day event had taken place or not.