COUNTY council leader Keith Mitchell visited Didcot to warn residents that £200m of cuts will soon start hitting local services.

Finance bosses at County Hall in Oxford are predicting that a reduction in Government funding will mean they have to find the savings by 2015.

Earlier this month Mr Mitchell said he expected the cuts would mean the council losing 1,000 of its 22,000 staff, instead of 500 as previously estimated. It is already making £13m of cuts from this year’s budget.

On Thursday, Mr Mitchell and chief executive Joanna Simons visited Didcot’s Cornerstone arts centre as part of a countywide ‘tour’ to get views on where cuts should be made.

Ms Simons said: “Didcot has a library, youth facilties and a fire station – if we have to make cutbacks where are we going to make them?”

Mr Mitchell told a 100-strong audience: “We are faced with a tougher situation than we have been in the past 20 years.

“We are going to have to make some tough decisions about priorities. Our debate is how we try to go about making these cuts.”

A Government spending review – set to report next month – will determine how much cash the council gets.

Mr Mitchell said he was braced for major cuts as health, education and international development spending would be spared, putting more pressure on councils.

He said this could see more county street lights switched off to save cash overnight, a move that has not so far affected Didcot.

Mr Mitchell said: “I hope we can turn off a lot more street lights, providing it is safe.”

Rodney Rose, executive member for transport, said the council wanted to switch off 14,000 of the 57,000 street lights but this would cost too much in engineering work.

Mayor of Wallingford Bernard Stone said: “People might be prepared to pay more to protect services.”

Didcot Town Council leader Bill Service added: “I don’t think education funding should be exempt from cuts when adult and social services are not – we still have to look after our old people.”

He said the authority should look at sharing services as South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse district councils are doing.

Ms Simons said the county was working with Oxford City Council and was also looking at areas where it could team up with Thames Valley Police.

The next debate is at Langdale Hall, Witney, next Tuesday, followed by Banbury town hall on Wednesday, September 29.

It will then go to Abingdon’s Abbey Hall on Thursday, September 30. All the talks run from 7.30pm to 9pm.

You can also have a say at oxfordshire. gov.uk/ bigdebate