Bill Taylor, the Chief Executive of West Lancs Council writes occasionally in the localgov website. He writes the following in his latest article District View: Has CPA had its day?

I argued in this column recently that the days of step change improvement are finished, finito, gone for the foreseeable future – the notion that across the piece we can get substantially more for less is plainly ‘tosh’; (obviously we will continue to seek to make efficiency gains when we can but these are not going to bridge the massive financial gaps in councils budgets).

We are, therefore, in a period of retrenchment where services will have to be reduced particularly in non-priority/statutory areas. (my emphasis)

The Council is drafting it’s budget for 09/10 which will be announced in next month’s meeting. Bill leaves us with no doubt that there will be cuts – and gives a good idea where they will be. If he’s citing non-statutory, then I expect big cuts in leisure.

What’s more worrying is that he cites “non-priority areas”. This is arm-waving stuff, what’s a priority today could be dropped tomorrow if they don’t like it. Certainly the Tories in West Lancs have never liked being involved with improving health – they see it as something for the PCT to do. They tried dropping the doctor referral scheme a couple of years ago (and then brought it back after an outcry). I expect that they’ll try something similar again this year.

For the Chief Exec to say that there isn’t any further scope for step change improvement shows how low the Council’s ambition has sunk. To dismiss the idea so glibly has to be a concern to all Council Tax payers in the District and I hope he is put on the spot about it at forthcoming meetings.