Savage Council cuts due to be confirmed tonight (Tuesday 21/12/10)

Older people's homes and day centres are facing mass closures as Haringey Council announces the largest funding cuts in its history.

Haringey has set out in stark detail the scale of closures facing the borough as £87 million is wiped from budgets over the next three years.

Four older people's homes providing residential care for pensioners will be closed across the borough and seven drop-in and day centres providing vital social contact and support for older people will also be shut, along with a mental health crisis unit and a mental health day care centre.

Jobs are set to go at libraries and Tottenham's Bruce Castle Museum and some council managers will be axed saving £2.5 million alone.

At the other end of the scale, free tea and coffee vending machines in council offices will be scrapped, saving £50,000 annually, and allotment fees will rise by £9 per plot.

The council released detailed plans for more than £28 million of savings between 2011 and 2014 on Friday (December 17).

But that is less than a third of the cuts needed to balance a £87 million black hole in the budget over the next three years. Further measures will be announced in the New Year.

The Government is making Haringey find more than half of the savings - £46 million - in the next year alone, with further cuts of around £20 million in each of the following two years.

Labour Councillor Joe Goldberg, cabinet member for finance and sustainability, said: "The overwhelming speed and scale of the Government’s cuts have left us with little room for manoeuvre – we have to make some incredibly tough decisions and we have to make them very quickly or they won’t have a great enough impact on next year’s spending.

The council's cabinet will consider the first wave of cuts at a meeting tonight (Tuesday, December 21) before they are put out for consultation.

The council says it will prioritise back office efficiency and explore sharing services to prioritise cash for those most in need, but services for older people are revealed as the hardest hit in the first wave of cuts.

* Cranwood Older People’s Home in Muswell Hill and Broadwater Lodge Older People’s Home in Tottenham will both be closed saving £1.1 million.

* Red House Residential Care Home in South Tottenham, which provides care for dementia patients and the frail, will close saving £714,000.

* Whitehall Residential Home in Tottenham, for people with learning difficulties, will close saving £237,000.

* Four drop-in centres for older people will close saving £234,000 - Abyssinia Court in Crouch End, Willoughby Road in Hornsey, The Drop-in Centre at The Irish Centre in Tottenham, and Woodside House in Wood Green.

* The Haven Day Centre in Tottenham, for people with physical disability and sensory impairment, to close, and The Grange Day Centre in White Hart Lane, Tottenham, to merge with The Haynes Day Centre in Crouch End, saving £234,000.

* Woodside Day Centre in Wood Green, used by 45 vulnerable older people, will close saving £149,000.

* Jacksons Lane Luncheon Club will lose £10,000 for a part time staff member, leaving its future unclear.

The closures will result in the complete loss of day care services for older people across the borough, except for dementia sufferers, and the council’s in-house home care service, offering personal care to vulnerable adults, will also cease saving £1.06 million.

Other services across the council facing cut backs include:

* Some council managers axed, saving £2.5 million.

* Connexions careers advice service for vulnerable young people reduced by 75 per cent saving £1.64 million.

* Staff cuts at libraries and Bruce Castle Museum saving £384,000.

* Reduced response to noise complaints, including stopping out-of-hours response service, saving £180,000.

* Cutbacks in mobile phone use by council staff saving £150,000.

* Review of translation services saving £124,000.

* No free tea and coffee in council vending machines saving £50,000.

* Allotment charges to rise by £9 a year, earning an extra £22,000.

More than 1,000 jobs are at risk and redunancy costs are likely to cost the council in the region of £10-20 million.

Consultation has begun with staff likely to be affected and a voluntary redundancy scheme has been set up.

Further savings plans are being drawn up and will be revealed in January and a balanced budget for 2011-2012 must be agreed by the Full Council in February.