Cuts planned after £17m overspend

The council has faced protests recently

Bristol City Council has proposed a 2005 budget aimed at heading off a £17m overspend in social services.

It includes £6m in cuts from social services and the rest being met through efficiency savings, existing resources and more government grants.

Council tax for an average band D property would rise by 4.9%.

The overspend has partly been blamed on a greater demand for services. The plan will be presented to the full council on 1 March for approval.

Council leader Peter Hammond said: "We are extremely disappointed that we have found ourselves in this situation.

"There are problems in the social services department, partly due to the increase demand for services, but there are also problems with the management structure and financial control."

Sick leave

Anger over proposed cuts and closures of day centres led to large protests in Bristol recently. And the director of social services has gone on sick leave, due to stress.

However, the budget does propose overall spending on social services to increase from £98.8m in 2003/4 to about £127m in 2005/6.

Changes to services include:

reviewing individual cases

developing alternative independent living support for people who may otherwise need to go in to residential care

making 24-hour residential care providers deliver day activities to clients - rather than giving them free access to council day centres

increasing home care charges from £10 to £12 per hour

replacing the current meals service

The plans also include finding more cost effective alternatives to specialist residential care support, often in other parts of the UK, for a small number of vulnerable children and young people.

The budget also includes an extra £300,000 for street cleaning; £100,000 for work with young offenders to tackle crime and £80,000 for free internet access in libraries.

Councillor Hammond said that efforts were being made to avoid a similar social services crisis happening again.

"It's like trying to stop a super tanker, it takes 10 miles for it to stop when the captain says halt or turn right," he said.