Cuts cuts and more cuts
Somerset County Council announces major cost-cutting plans affecting jobs and major construction projects.
Compulsory redundancies are in the pipeline at Somerset County Council.
It's been announced there'll be fifteen hundred job losses over the next 3 years to help cut costs. Around a thousand workers have expressed an interest in taking voluntary retirement and there's been a recruitment freeze in place for a year but some staff will have no choice but to lose their jobs.
Major construction projects are to be scrapped including merging 3 Yeovil schools and building a pre-school centre in Castle Cary.
Hours at libraries will be cut, volunteers may be asked to run them instead of professional librarians and Bruton's is to close altogether.
Meanwhile a third of Somerset's tennant farms are to be sold off and a major project to pedestrianize Taunton towen centre has been shelved.
The county council's run by the Tories and at a press conference in Taunton today their leader, Ken Maddock, the cost cutting was necessary to pay off debts of £400 million. He also blamed a predicted cut in central government funding for Somerset of £75 million over the next 3 years.
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