A community transport vehicle

EXCLUSIVE: A councillor has said cuts to community transport services would be a “double whammy” for Lichfield and Burntwood.

A number of services face being scaled back or axed completely as part of Lichfield District Council’s bid to save £1.7million.

A community transport vehicle
A community transport vehicle

The Fit for the Future review carried out be the local authority has suggested £25,000 a year could be saved by closing the community transport service completely.

But an internal report also warned that doing so could see thousands of journeys lost as well as more than 2,000 hours of volunteering.

Labour councillor Sue Woodward has warned that such a move would have a huge impact on local people.

“Cuts to community development and community transport hit those least able to do without them, such as older people and disadvantaged groups, especially as Lichfield District Council has made supporting such groups a strategic priority,” said Cllr Woodward.

“I’m also concerned about the impact on volunteers and community groups.

Cllr Sue Woodward
Cllr Sue Woodward

“If they are lost as a consequence of these cuts, it will be a doubly whammy.”

Cllr Woodward added that a petition was being organised to fight the plans after Labour colleagues received “numerous calls and emails” about the issue.

But council staff have been warned that hard-hitting cuts are vital in the wake of a reduction in Government funding.

Lichfield District Council leader Mike Wilcox admitted that tough decisions would need to be made as the local authority looks to balance the books.

“While we have found considerable savings so far, we will continue to review our services over the coming months to ensure that they are delivered in the most cost effective way for our customers and within the resources we will have available,” he said.

However, Cllr Woodward believes taxpayers will be asking serious questions about the  financial decisions being made by the ruling Conservative group.

“It’s ironic that Lichfield District Council have prided themselves on being an efficient council when a lot of the cuts being proposed – and the suggestions made by staff – highlight savings that could have been made previously.

“All this, too, is in the context of the Garrick being subsidised to the tune of £1.3m over the next two years.

“Yes, it’s a valued addition to the district – but at what cost to council tax payers?”

Criticism of the funding received by the Lichfield Garrick has been rejected by its chief executive Adrian Jackson.

He told LichfieldLive that as well as providing a benefit to the area, it was also “vital to the life and vibrancy of our city and district”.

Founder of Lichfield Live and editor of the site.

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Wiggy
10 years ago

Councillor Woodward is quite right to be asking the Garrick question again. When are we going to realise that supporting a theatre to the tune of £1.3m cannot be morrally right when we have community transport being cut to save £25k a year.