A COUNCIL is aiming to make £3.4m of cuts next year, and warned it would affect every resident in the district.

Cherwell District Council has cut funding across services, reduced staff hours and cut vacant job posts in response to October’s Government spending review.

The local authority says the cuts are necessary as it expects to lose millions of its annual Government grant over the next four years.

Among the services that will be hit are Christmas lights, holiday play schemes, grounds maintenance, and grants for sports and village halls.

Elsewhere planning fees, car parking charges and the cost of sending children on summer sports schemes, such as football camps, are all set to go up. But as budgets are reduced across department, Cherwell’s executive has also agreed a £250 annual pay rise for all staff earning under £25,000 — that affects 56 per cent of workers and adds up to £76,000.

The Government had previously agreed that all public sector staff earning under £21,000 should receive a £250 rise. But the council decided to pay out to all employees earning under £25,000 a year – a total of 304 people.

Also approved was a 2.9 per cent increase in the council’s contribution to staff pensions. That amounts to £118,000 a year. The council said the increase in pension contribution was “not optional” but a legal requirement, and the pay rise was part of a re-negotiated deal with staff, who were due to get a rise of 1.8 per cent next year, and a further 1.9 per cent the following year.

It said the pension increase came after the Oxfordshire Local Government Pension Scheme was revalued and revealed councils had to pay more in.

James Macnamara, Cherwell’s executive member for resources and communications, said: “The £250 pay award on people earning £25,000 or less amounts to one per cent, which, after a year’s freeze, is hardly generous. I think for large numbers of our staff to forgo the 1.8 per cent they had agreed, meaning another year with no pay rise, is an extraordinary act and one I hope people will appreciate.”

Other savings planned by Cherwell include: l Scrap sandwiches at all council meetings except the executive, saving £2,744 l Withdraw funding of £39,000 in grants to parish councils for village halls l Cut cardiac referral contribution of £4,700 l Drop the £4,277 grants and bursaries budget for school links l Merge Cherwell’s democratic and election teams saving £30,000 l Cut subsidy to parish council elections of £11,111.