Suffolk vote today on plans to become “enabling” authority

Members will vote today on a new strategic direction report, which aims to cut council spending and staff in order to make the local authority more efficient and customer focused. The key priorities of the report are to make the county council an "enabling" authority, which will no longer provide certain services and instead outsource them from other organisations or private contractors. It will also give communities and individuals more control over services and budgets. The report states: "Whilst we believe that the divestment process can save money, we are unlikely to be able to escape the fact that the council will have to stop supporting some services in whole or in part." Local representatives from the trade union Unison have written to all the councilors expressing their fears. Secretary of the Unison Suffolk branch, Helen Muddock said: "We all accept these are difficult times. We need to deal with the problems and not just divest ourselves of the responsibility."