COUNCILLORS have been warned to use the back door to avoid protesters when they arrive at the Civic Offices for a crucial meeting to decide on budget cutbacks tonight.

A memo has been sent to staff to warn them that protesters are planning to stage a demonstration outside the building.

The council says it expects to have to shave £45m off its budget over the next three years.

It is proposing to slash £1.5m from this year’s adult social care budget and £968,000 from the children’s services budget.

In total it is trying to claw back £5.3m from its 2010/11 budget.

Trade union members from the GMB as well as community groups and people who rely on council services are all expected to be part of the protest.

Michelle Gordon, from the GMB union, described the proposals as ‘terrifying’.

She said: “The cuts are being made too quickly and too deep in Swindon.

"Vulnerable people who really need public sector services will be the worst affected. The cuts they are making are disproportionate.”

She pointed out that the council’s grant from central Government was being reduced by £1.4m this year but the total of proposed cuts was £5m.

She said: “£1.5m off the adult social care budget is just massive. These are the people who most need the public sector to support them.

“We have very good quality social care provision in Swindon and we want to hold on to it.

“This is not just about council employees wanting to protect their jobs.

"We are really concerned as Swindon residents about the impact this is going to have on society in the town.”

Coun Derique Montaut, Labour group leader on the council, said: “I think what is so infuriating people is that while the council continues to spend £19,000 on bottled water, £500,000 on its communications’ budget and £32,000 on hospitality, day centres are under threat, purpose-built gyms for disabled users are being closed and buses for the elderly and pensioners are being reduced.

“To them and me, this just does not make sense.”

But leader of the council Coun Rod Bluh rejected the claims and insisted more would be spent on the vulnerable, not less.

“The cuts are all part of what we believe is necessary to get us through not just this year but the coming years,” he said.

“We are going to be spending more on vulnerable people not less, but there are some changes that have to be made.

“We cannot avoid having to find savings from adult social care and children’s services because that’s where most of the money is spent.

“If we ring fenced it there would not be a single library or leisure centre for the rest of the residents in Swindon.”

The leaders of all three main political parties in Swindon have been summoned to the Mayor’s office ahead of the meeting tonight to be warned about their behaviour.

It follows criticism of how the last council meeting was handled, when elderly and disabled people who had come to speak out on cuts had to wait for more than two hours to speak.

They had to sit through muddled proceedings and abusive remarks between councillors.

See tomorrow’s Adver for reports from the meeting.