To receive any questions of which members of the Council have given notice.  Deadline for notification for this meeting is Friday 23 January 2015.

Question from Councillor Roger Evans

‘I note the message that has been sent around to all staff and Shropshire Councillors. Can I please be informed what has necessitated such drastic and sudden action?

I understand a number of posts had already been advertised and appropriate costs incurred, does this include these posts. Does it also include any posts that have been offered but not yet accepted?

For members information a copy of the letter sent to all staff and Councillors is shown below’.

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‘As you know, and as in previous years, the council is under financial pressure and we have significant savings to make before the end of this financial year in March.  I would be very grateful for your support and co-operation to enable the necessary savings.

As part of this, a spending freeze is immediately being applied in all areas of the council. This means that you should avoid council expenditure wherever possible, so please don't spend any of your budget unless you have to.

We are not allocating specific targets to services, as we trust that you will do everything you can to avoid expenditure on anything that is not essential. We’re also not prescribing what essential spending is, as you are best placed to know what is absolutely necessary to provide your service.

We recognise that most people will do everything they can to avoid costs this year. However, in similar circumstances previously some individuals continued to spend their budget to avoid it being reduced in the subsequent years. This 'use it or lose it' approach must be avoided and will be monitored and challenged.

We will take account of spending commitments made before this spending freeze, but will be monitoring where people are spending to the upper limits of their budget as well as recognising where individuals have saved significantly.

Recruitment is also frozen with immediate effect and any recruitment must now be approved by me directly.  Recruitment currently underway should be discussed with me before it continues and no new adverts for posts are to be initiated’.

Response:  The Chief Executive stated that the spending freeze was not unusual and stressed the need for all to recognise that the level of local government cuts remained at an unprecedented level.  He added that Shropshire Council was continuing to achieve within budget year on year and staff were managing budget limiting expenditure.  He added that, whilst the Council’s Voluntary Redundancy scheme was ongoing, it would be wrong to recruit without proper consideration of the available options.

Supplementary question:  In certain areas, namely planning, the authority is short staffed and the recruiting process had been initiated. Will recruiting to these posts still be progressed?

Response:  The Chief Executive advised that the workload dictated that the three planning posts were needed and the recruitment process would therefore continue.  He confirmed that posts would be filled if there was a demand for recruitment in order to meet the needs of local people, this recruitment could include retraining existing staff who may under threat of redundancy.