COUNCIL leader David Renard is urging communities to get more involved in making savings on services as the authority seeks to close an estimated £15m budget gap for 2014/15.

Swindon Council has already started work to find efficiencies to help balance what Coun Renard believes will be the toughest budget yet, as many of the savings suggested by government have already been made in Swindon.

Chancellor George Osborne announced earlier this week that the Department for Communities and Local Government had agreed to budget cuts of between eight and 10 per cent from 2015, and there are fears the allocations for councils will be lower again when revealed later in this year.

Coun Renard said all councils had to find ways to cope with increasing costs, particularly in caring services, and reduced funding. He said the key to balancing the budget would be communities, including residents, charities and parish councils, getting involved in re-designing cheaper, smarter services.

He admits there are some sensitive areas, including child protection, where the council could not ask residents to be involved, but says if anyone has any workable ideas, the council is willing to explore and move forward with them.

He said: “I think the difficulty we’ve got is we have reduced our senior management now down to a level beyond which it’s difficult to see how we could go any further, without doing significant damage to the organisation and all the services within it. So I’m not sure there’s much scope left in that area.

“So what we’re going to have to do is ask residents to get more involved. Now, that could be something really simple like not dropping litter, because we spend huge amounts of money as a council picking up litter.

“We have got a lot of talented people living in Swindon and they’ve got a variety of things to offer.

“I’m sure. I don’t want to be too prescriptive in terms of restricting people who want to come forward. So let’s put the challenge out there.

“I think also parish councils have got a role, so we will be talking to them over the next few months to see what they might be able to do. Because clearly their precepts aren’t capped in the way that the borough council has got.”

Coun Renard said savings were being sought across all services, including children’s services, adult social care and Streetsmart.

But said he also expected cash to be saved by reducing subsidies for leisure centres and bus services.

He said it was too early to rule further job cuts in or out.

The council was currently assuming the Government would ask for another council tax freeze, although this was not sustainable in the long-term.

He added: “I fully support the Government’s drive to reduce and hopefully ultimately eliminate the deficit, the country has got to live within its means.

“Government has persistently said that local government is the most efficient part of government and I agree with that, but it does seem that local government is being asked to shoulder far more than other parts of government.”

Swindon South MP, Robert Buckland, praised Coun Renard’s drive to involve communities more, and said councils should see cuts as an opportunity to engage with local organisations and change the operation of services.