In light of reductions in public spending Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority has been obliged to reduce costs within the organisation whilst continuing to meet its strategic priorities. Last year, savings of £650,000 were identified as necessary between 2014/2015 and 2015/2016.
During the process of identifying savings, the Authority reviewed the costs of all services and looked at ways to make business processes more effective, identify efficiency savings and increase the amount of income the Authority generates.
Whilst a significant amount of the savings required has already been achieved, it has become clear that the Authority is still faced with making very difficult decisions in 2015/2016 and beyond as savings alone will not be enough to address the expected gap between funding and spending.
Earlier today, Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority Chief Executive, John Cook met with National Park staff to outline proposals which identify further savings, which unfortunately include informing staff that four job posts were at risk. Mr Cook said: “We are continuing to explore a range of options as we prepare next year’s budget. Of course, we will try to keep the number of redundancies to a minimum but the extent of savings we need to find means that regrettably some job losses will be unavoidable. We really value the hard work and commitment of our staff during this difficult time and we will do everything we can to support them in the face of further financial cuts. Like all other Local Authorities and Councils across Wales, the National Park Authority will continue to demonstrate resilience in the face of financial challenges.”
Budget proposals are due to go before the Audit and Scrutiny Committee on Friday 23rd January 2015 with the final recommendations and budget proposals being put forward to Members at the National Park Authority for approval on Friday 6th February 2015.
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