Bradford residents have told the Council what services they want protected and and which ones they want cut back ahead of this year’s budget.

It will be the most brutal for a generation due to the two-year £67.5 million funding cut passed down to the local authority by central government.

A total of 433 people responded to a public consultation asking for ways in which they want to see the Council find savings.

The most popular suggestions were to reduce back-office functions and by introducing fortnightly refuse collections. There was a split in the public’s opinion of the latter. Refuse collection was highlighted 77 times and 18 of those called for weekly collections to be maintained.

Residents were asked for their views either online or via the Council’s Community Pride newspaper, and a lot of people who responded said they would happily see the newspaper itself axed.

Others want the Council’s translation and interpreting services to be cut entirely.

Suggestions also called for the number of councillors and both their expenses and meal allowances to be reduced.

Some residents want a reduction in employees’ costs and terms and conditions – including the number of paid sick days and expenses – and fewer City Hall managers on lower pay.

Education and children’s services, services for the elderly and refuse collection were considered the most important services the Council provides.

The Council said work had already started to make savings in some of the areas highlighted by the consultation process.

The local authority’s senior management team is being re-structured.

Jane Glaister, the former strategic director for culture, tourism and sport, has been made redundant and is a high-earning casualty in a reshuffle which is expected to save the Council £1.1m.

Staff who leave the Council, meanwhile, are only being replaced in exceptional cases and the Council said it has “drastically reduced” the amount of agency staff on its books.

Leaders claim the ‘Changing our Council’ programme is making the local authority a more prudent operator by, for example, centralising purchases to take advantage of bulk discounts, introducing flexible and mobile working to cut transport costs and reducing the amount of printed materials being produced.

The Telegraph & Argus understands that senior managers have been asked to identify departmental savings of 25 per cent to inform the budget process.

The Council said managers were reviewing all services to suggest different ways of delivering them, or whether they need to be delivered at all and staff have been offered voluntary redundancy, flexible retirement or reductions in their hours.

A letter was sent to every Council employee before Christmas warning them their position was at risk and negotiations are ongoing with trade union representatives.

Staff, too, have been asked to suggest ways that services could be delivered more cost-efficiently or differently.

  • See the full story in the T&A