NUMBERS really don’t make things easier to understand sometimes.
Twenty million pounds needs to be cut from public spending over the next couple of years in Reading, but that means very little to most people. The numbers are too big. And there’s still another £17 million to go in the near future.
What people will understand and what people will notice, is that their libraries are closing earlier than they used to.
They’ll notice that their blue badge permits cost a little more and that dealing with child services will take a little longer because there are fewer staff.
People will find things like day care centres and even wedding venues have moved into shared buildings.
Graffiti removal and community clean ups won’t happen in the same way.
Bus passes won’t be valid until after rush hour.
For Reading Borough Council, they will have to cut their own staff by 10 per cent.
Some of those positions may already be vacant, but the long and short of it is that there will be fewer people, with fewer resources, trying to do the same job.
It isn’t an enviable position; trying to balance the books when you have a legal duty to maintain the basic rights of more than 150,000 people.
But it needs to be done.
The only difference is who do you want to make those decisions and how?
In Reading we could see ourselves as lucky having seemingly avoided some of the larger headline items facing residents in West Berkshire.
Leaders in Newbury took an understandable amount of flak when neighbours found their children’s centres, libraries, town centre CCTV and school transport seemingly axed or put under threat almost overnight.
They still have their own challenges over the border in West Berkshire but those decisions - as unpalatable as they may be - were made quickly and effectively.
Here in Reading however, despite warnings from the council leader that this will be the largest amount ever cut in one year, it still raises the question of what is left to go?
Changes to the way business rates work could see local authorities given a slight relief, but those plans are four years away and no one yet knows whether they will bring the respite George Osborne claimed they would.
Only yesterday (Wednesday) the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services said the power to raise extra council tax would not even cover the rise in minimum wages. So where is everyone going to find this money?
It’s not just numbers on a spreadsheet