MILLIONS of pounds worth of budget cuts faced by a North-East council have been debated at a public meeting, as councillors warned changes to services are inevitable.

Darlington Borough Council must cut £13.8m from its budget by 2016, on top of £22m already cut in recent years and is looking at reducing some services and cutting others altogether to make ends meet.

Council leader Bill Dixon warned that the level of the cuts meant the authority was not far away from a ‘doomsday scenario’ of not being able to provide even basic services to people in the town.

The preliminary budget produced by the council has been able to continue subsidies for some at-risk discretionary services for the next two years, but councillors stressed that the money will run out in 2016.

The council’s cabinet officially proposed the medium term financial plan, which includes a council tax increase of two per cent per year and a spending reduction of £13.802m, to allow a period of public debate and consultation before a final decision is made in February.

Among the cuts proposed by the council is the closure of both the Head of Steam Museum and Cockerton Library in 2016, unless they are taken on by community groups.

The council is also looking to bring in fortnightly refuse collections which, depending on the option taken by the authority, could mean the introduction of a second wheeled bin for separate recycling.

Speaking at the cabinet meeting tonight, (Wednesday) Coun Dixon said: “You will all be aware that this is the third successive budget that has had double digit cuts.

“Because we made difficult decisions early and because we have stuck to our budget by and large, this year we are able to talk to people and get ahead of the curve on deciding which services are most important.

“We need to be realistic – the money simply won’t be there to fund some things in 2015-16. We are not scaremongering, this is real. This is happening.”

Bob Wood, Darlington local government representative for Unison, said staff at the authority were facing ‘incredibly uncertain futures’ as the preliminary budget does not make clear where jobs will be lost.

He added: “Almost 700 jobs have gone from Darlington council in three years. The reduced workforce can’t maintain the same level of service.

“The staff who are still there don’t know if they will have a job in 12 months.”

Cabinet members representing different areas of the council’s service provision gave short presentations about the possible cuts and answered questions from members of the public.

Further coverage of the issues raised in the meeting will be in Friday’s edition of The Northern Echo.