Wigan Council is calling on residents to agree to a new ‘contract’ in a bid to avoid job losses and cuts to frontline services.
The council has launched the Wigan Deal, with the council promising to protect services and keep council tax down in return for the public helping to balance the books. This includes recycling more, volunteering and using online services.
The council, which must find £15m savings in 2014/15, will also change the way it works by looking for community groups and other organisations to run services.
Leader of Wigan Council, Lord Peter Smith, said: ‘We're grateful already to the public for improving recycling rates, which has contributed £1m to our savings. But we need their help in other ways too. We want them to see their relationship with the council as a contract. We’ll keep taxes down and provide the best services we can if they can play their part by recycling more, volunteering in local projects, helping to keep where they live neat and tidy and by using our online services more.
‘This new way of working has been forced on us by the drastic cuts to our budget. We expected to see our grant from central government reduced but the reality has been way beyond expectations. We have already made £64.8m worth of savings and still have another £43m to save over the next three years.
‘There is still pain to come, and transforming the way we work is a huge challenge, but we are in a strong position to meet that challenge and if the residents of Wigan Borough work with us, we can move forward with confidence.’
