East Devon District Council has revealed some of its money saving measures, which are to be discussed by council members over the next month.

EAST Devon District Council has revealed some of its money saving measures, which are to be considered over the next month, as it works towards setting a balanced budget.

The proposed measures will be considered by council members just as central funding is being reduced and Council Tax is frozen.

They include the prioritisation of some services to deal with the impact of the Localism agenda, a number of staff redundancies in back-office areas, reductions in spending on maintenance and upkeep of the public realm, and limiting repairs to essential work only.

EDDC’s Leader, Sara Randall Johnson, said: “People will note that the savings we are considering are spread right across the Council’s many services. No stone has been left unturned in the search for better value and we have tried to be as fair as possible in the distribution of the savings.

“We are living in very hard times and tough decisions have to be taken. There is still time for Members to change some of the detail but the emphasis of the change is simple – to manage our affairs in such a way that we can stay solvent, freeze Council Tax and still continue to deliver as many front-line services as we possibly can.”

The council need to make savings of �2.4 million next year, which has taken into account the new grant settlement from the Government and the transfer of concessionary bus fares to Devon County Council.

However, more savings will still need to be found over the new few years.

Some savings have already been identified through a restructuring of the senior management team with recommendations including cutting 12 back-office posts, reducing the corporate training budget, cutting repairs to council car parks as well as restricting flood prevention spending to statutory works only and minimal maintenance to EDDC’s corporate buildings.

In Seaton the council will be turning off and no longer maintaining the festoon lighting on the Seafront.

Discussions on the recommendation made this week by the Service Planning and Budget Task and Finish Forum (TaFF) will go before various boards and committees and will be discussed by the full council on February 23,

The recommendations made are subject to change as discussions are held over the next month.