DUDLEY Council’s cabinet rubber-stamped plans to make a raft of brutal cuts to services in a bid to save £22million over the next year.

Senior Labour councillors gave their backing to the proposed budget for 2015/16 at last night’s meeting at The Council House in Dudley and it will go forward for approval at the next full council meeting on Monday March 2.

Conservative councillors, however, hit out over a lack of time to scrutinise the proposed cuts – as the cabinet meeting and full council meetings have been scheduled with just five days in between, giving opposition members little time to cast their eye over the plans.

Councillor Mike Wood, Conservative Group spokesman for finance and the party’s candidate in Dudley South in the forthcoming General Election, accused the council of “dropping out bits of the budget as it suits their own agenda” and added: “I’d like to put on record how disappointed we are that this is our first opportunity to question this budget five days before the council have to adopt a budget on Monday. This is clearly not acceptable and I hope this will not be repeated in the future.

“We are unable to support the proposal to scrap transport for under fives with special educational needs. This is not the right proposal – we have to work together to find an alternative.”

“It seems this administration has lost any credibility to manage savings in a way that protects the most important services.”

Councillor Stuart Turner, the council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for finance, told the meeting: “While the position for us is not as bleak as it is for some – the financial challenge is still enormous.

“We have taken every opportunity to argue for a fair deal for Dudley, despite this the Government has cut £19million from our revenue support grant.

“We have identified further savings and improved our position to be able to cover the largest part of 2016/17.”

But he said the “pressures are enormous” and added: We need to find a further £33million of savings by 2017/18.”

Proposed savings for 2015/16 include job cuts and restructuring across various departments and reductions in services and care packages provided for people with mental health and physical disabilities and the elderly.

Cuts have also been earmarked and look set to affect day centres in the borough and the council’s reablement provision for those needing care after hospital inpatient treatment plus children’s centres.

Reductions proposed for the urban environment budget also mean less cash for road resurfacing and reconstruction, less money for the maintenance of street lighting, signs and bollards, gully drain emptying and the maintenance of parks, open spaces and grass verges.