BUDGET cuts faced by Monmouthshire council are so severe that the authority is unable to guarantee how any services might look in the future, its deputy leader has said.

On Wednesday, cllr Bob Greenland told Chepstow Town Council his county council will seek to take a total of £500,000 from them and other town councils across Monmouthshire next year in an effort to keep services running.

He said those services would face being axed if finance was not provided – and he said of future years: “Nothing is safe in this world at the moment.”

The authority’s leader cllr Peter Fox has already warned Monmouthshire still has £1.5 million to find for planned cuts of £7 million next year, assuming it increases council tax by 4.95 per cent. It spends about £130 million a year currently.

Official cost-cutting proposals have been made public for the first time this week ahead of a meeting of senior councillors on Wednesday. Consultations will be held with people in the county over coming months to get their views on what should be reduced or cut.

As part of a plan to save £160,000 Monmouthshire council could move out of its Innovation House base in Magor and move staff to County Hall in Usk. Private tenants would be sought to rent the empty building.

As the Argus has previously reported, Monmouthshire could relinquish direct control in its leisure services and place them into a trust. Leisure trusts have already been established in Newport, Torfaen and Blaenau Gwent.

Documents show Monmouthshire’s cultural services department is spending £1.08 million this year, significantly over its £770,000 annual pot. The council has admitted its museums service is “hugely overstretched and unsustainable”.

In Chepstow cllr Greenland mooted how the council could establish a “super trust” to control services which it might not be able to afford to operate in the future. He suggested those services could then be handed to town councils or voluntary bodies to run.

Chepstow Town Council alone is being asked to contribute £118,000 next year to help or take over services currently provided by the county council. This year the town council has spent £389,500.

And if Monmouthshire’s programme is fully accepted, the town council would pay £25,000 for a street sweeper, £25,000 towards Chepstow’s tourist information centre (TIC), £28,000 for a sexton at the town’s cemetery, £10,000 for one day’s opening at Chepstow Museum a week and £30,000 for its community hub. That would still face opening hours being reduced from 46 hours to 37 hours a week.

Other town councils will be visited by senior councillors and officers over coming weeks – but have yet to be told of totals they might be asked to meet, the Argus understands.

At Chepstow Town Council, cllr Ned Heywood was in favour of further discussion of the proposals at future meetings.

He said: “[Community and town councils] have been able to provide the jam, the goodies…and now we are asked to provide the bread, the things that make the life of the town. We don’t want untidy streets, we want the TIC. We need to be grown up about it and take some responsibility.”

But Cllr Tom Kirton said he was concerned the cuts to the Welsh Government’s budget, to Monmouthshire council’s and therefore the town council’s will continue “ad infinitum”.

Town councillors voted to send the outline proposals to the town council’s finance committee for further scrutiny at a meeting on October 14.

More saving ideas were presented by consultants in Usk for Monmouthshire’s tourism, leisure and culture service and youth services at a meeting on Wednesday. But they will not be available for press or public for some time.

The results of the £30,000 report by AMION Consulting contains “sensitive information” and risks causing “staff [and] stakeholder upset” if released before they can be further scrutinised by councillors.

Members of the county council’s economy and development select committee have been provided with the plans.

In a covering report, the authority says that the work suggests “minor tweaking of services will not solve the significant budget deficit issue”.

And senior managers hope a further review will be undertaken at a cost of £50,000.