Norfolk County Council approves cuts as new budget set
The council’s government grant will be reduced by £42m in 2015-16 and costs will rise by £27m, the council said.
Councillors agreed a budget of £318m on Monday after a meeting lasting nearly six hours.
The council is run by an alliance of Labour, Lib Dems and UKIP supported by the Greens.
‘Tough decisions’
Total cuts amounting to almost £11m will affect community services, arts funding, libraries and road maintenance.
Council leader George Nobbs agreed to set aside £100,000 to delay the cut in transport for people using adult social care services.
A protest by those affected by the transport cuts met the councillors as they arrived for the budget summit.
A spokesman said some of those hit by the cuts would now be faced with travel costs of up to £7,000 a year.
Council tax is to be frozen for a further year after a proposal by the Greens for a 2% increase was rejected.
Mr Nobbs said: “Gone are the days when the hardest decisions facing councillors was where to allocate additional money.
“Despite losing almost £42m in government grants, and facing escalating costs of £27m, we have protected front-line care services from the worst impact.
“This has been done through a strong record of delivering efficiencies and through taking tough decisions, cutting where we have had no alternative.”
Budgets for the current year were cut by £66m in February 2014.
