Libraries, swimming pools and bonfire nights all face the axe in Manchester?s latest wave of brutal council cuts.
A total of 830 jobs will be lost and council tax hiked by 3.7 per cent if an ?80m new savings package, revealed today, is approved.
Miles Platting would lose both its swimming pool and library under the plans. Four other pools,? including Broadway near New Moston, and five other libraries ? including New Moston ? also face the axe.
The 3.7pc council tax rise ? an average of ?2.68 a month ? is planned from this April.
Public bonfire displays would no longer be free, and could be axed altogether, saving ?25,000 a year. Council bosses hope to find sponsors for the events instead.
Green bin collections would go fortnightly between September and March and some city-centre parking charges would rise ? although bosses insist others will fall.
Roughly half the savings and job losses ? around ?40m and 400 posts ? will come from merging two of the council?s biggest directorates, for children?s and adults? services.
Council chiefs say a large chunk of the job losses from those departments will be managerial ? and no social workers will go. The move follows the government?s latest budget cuts, which the council says have savaged Manchester unfairly for the second time.
It has already slashed ?170m since 2010, axing? 2,000 jobs.
Now bosses say a further 8.5pc funding cut over the next two years has left them with an ?inescapable? crisis ? meaning a fresh wave of services must go.
But they say the package will protect the city?s most vulnerable residents.
Council leader Sir Richard Leese said: ?Manchester has again been one of the places hit hardest by the government?s financial settlement.
?It is inescapable that the funding gap we have been left with, coming as it does on top of the severe budget reductions imposed on us in the previous two years, means the council has to make very real cuts and at the same time make fundamental changes to the way it operates.?
Coun Jeff Smith, executive member for finance, said: ?The last time we had to make savings on this scale, the severity of the settlement came as a shock.
?This time we were braced for it and have been planning for it and have been planning for some time the new ways of working which will help mitigate against the worst effects of the reduction in our funding and help us plan for the future.
?But those savings come on top of the significant cuts we have already had to make and there is no way to achieve this through efficiency and innovation alone.?
The draft plans would see Miles Platting, Broadway, Levenshulme and Withington pools shut this year, with Chorlton closing in 2015.
An already-announced? new centre will open in Beswick next year, along with new baths in Levenshulme and Hough End, Chorlton, in 2015.
Six libraries will shut, but council bosses plan to move five of them into existing community buildings such as SureStart centres ? Miles Platting, New Moston, Burnage, Fallowfield and Northenden.
They say a similar move two years ago has proved successful in other areas, including Clayton.
Levenshulme library would move into a new purpose-built leisure facility, also housing a new pool. The library and pool closures would save ?12m a year. Council bosses say merely cutting opening hours in a bid to save cash has not worked, as visitor numbers have fallen as a result.
Coun Smith added: ?I?d stress this is just a draft budget and, just as we did last time, we will listen carefully to people?s views before putting forward definitive proposals. But this scale of saving is not optional.?
Leader of the opposition, Lib Dem councillor Simon Wheale, said ?Labour bosses in Manchester shouldn?t need to close baths, libraries and other facilities if they bear down on wasteful expenditure and make savings on administrative costs more evenly across departments.
?The council should be looking to accept the funding from government to freeze the council tax, to avoid compulsory redundancies and to keep our facilities open even if we have to think more inventively about how to run facilities which will always need general council underwriting to cover their costs.?
A final proposal will go before councillors on Wednesday, March 6.
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