Derbyshire budget slashed by £125m

On top of the 45m already saved since 2010, Derbyshire County Council will have implement the new potentially-devastating cuts over the next five years.

The council is waiting for information which will allow it to start planning how its funding is allocated across services – but has already confirmed it will not raise council tax.

It will instead lose more than 2,000 jobs out of the current 36,000 staff members – largely through voluntary redundancy, early retirement and vacancy control.

Commenting on the funding round, council leader cllr Andrew Lewer, said: “The information we have at the moment does not provide the full picture and until we have studied the detail we cannot say how it affects our spending plans for 2013/14. However, I can confirm that we are planning to freeze council tax for the third year running.

“We are not prepared to ask local people to dig deeper and pay more in council tax. Instead, we will make their money go further by continuing to find cheaper and better ways of delivering our services.

“Yes, it will mean tough decisions and changes to some services. But we are committed to cutting out waste and providing the best possible value for money for our council taxpayers.”