Eastleigh Borough Council could have to make job cuts to make nearly £5m required savings

Eastleigh Borough Council must cut its budget by £4.7m over the next five years and the Daily Echo understands job losses cannot be ruled out.

Other measures being considered are increasing charges and sharing services with other councils.

The council is aiming to save £250,000 by the end of this financial year, a further £700,000 in 2015/2016, £1.75m in 2016/2017 and a further £1m in each of the following two years.

Rising inflation and interest rates, increased demand on services and predicted reduction in grants from Government have been blamed.

Conservative opposition councillor Godfrey Olson said he could not see how the council could reduce staff further without affecting services.

Cllr Godfrey Olson

“I hope it’s not at the expense of reducing any service or putting up charges,” he said.

The savings, he said, added to his concern about the council’s “excessive” borrowing, projected future borrowing and general “financial stability”.

He said borrowing to invest in large projects was only sound as long as everything worked out.

But he pointed to delays in the Ageas Bowl hotel scheme, due to finish a year late, and the former Comet site, which he said stood empty for months, which meant the council was losing rental income.

He also highlighted the £12m spent on moving council offices to the town centre.

Last year the Daily Echo revealed how the council was subsidising car parking for hundreds of council staff moving to its new headquarters, paying some workers nearly £5,000 over the next eight years, even to staff who use buses, trains, bikes or who walk to work.

The council is also planning to redevelop Fleming Park Leisure Centre at a cost of £15m and build a new £2.5m water sports centre at Lakeside Country Park.

Council leader Cllr Keith House said job losses would be “hopefully few, if any”.

Eastleigh Borough Council leader Keith House

He said: “We will find new and innovative ways of raising income, being more efficient and working smarter and changing and adapting our organisation as needed.

“We don’t have anywhere near the issues many councils have thanks to our income from property, like the Ageas Bowl, and our commercial outlook.

“So as we reduce our net spending by around a quarter we will need fewer cuts in services and job losses than most councils and we will try to manage these carefully over the coming years.”

He added that the council’s property strategy had avoided the need for major cuts to services and there were always voids in retail units from time to time.