Torfaen warns of severe council cuts on the way

COUNCIL chiefs may have to save up to 10 per cent across all services to meet the acute financial challenges posed by Welsh Government cut-backs.

Torfaen council announced the proposed cost-saving measures yesterday as it prepared to save £6 million in 2015/16, followed by other deep cuts in the next two financial years.

The Labour council expects to receive a provisional financial settlement from the Welsh Government today.

Council bosses will give taxpayers the opportunity to test likely financial scenarios to see where the axe could fall using an online simulator at budget road-shows this month.

The news came after Torfaen council was forced to set its toughest budget including £11 million of cuts since its creation in 1996. The report handed to Torfaen cabinet yesterday dubbed the current budget for 2014/15 "the most difficult since Torfaen County Borough Council came into existence" and "at this point in time there is no indication of when this period of severe austerity will end".

Torfaen council said in the report that the financial challenges in the next three years were "real and acute" adding there would be "no easy choices" in setting a balanced budget for 2015/16.