SPENDING cuts imposed since the last General Election at the North-East’s biggest council have topped £100m, its leader revealed today (Wednesday, May 22).

But Simon Henig, Labour leader of Durham County Council, said another £100m-worth of cuts must still be found – and warned of tough decisions in the months ahead.

Speaking after his re-election as council leader following a Labour landslide victory in this month’s elections, Councillor Henig said: “We are in the middle of six or seven years of continuous budget cuts and this makes things extremely difficult.

“We have just passed the milestone of saving £100m. That’s a big figure but unfortunately it’s going to get bigger. We are facing potentially another £100m and we’re still waiting for the Chancellor to make his next statement in June.”

Since 2010, the council has pulled out of running several leisure centres, closed tips, cut library opening hours, slashed spending on school transport and switched to fortnightly bin collections.

Coun Henig said the authority had tried to “protect people”, by freezing council tax and offering council tax support to some of the county’s poorest families, but this was becoming more and more difficult as cuts continued.

“Local government has already taken the biggest cuts of any area of government.

“And this isn’t about bureaucrats sitting in County Hall. This is about services to the public - children’s services, the state of our roads and adult social care,” he said.

The council’s new cabinet, appointed today (Wednesday, May 22), will immediately start looking at ways of saving money, he said, ahead of a major public consultation exercise to be held in October and November.

The authority is expected to have to save around £220m between 2010 and 2018. This year’s budget includes cuts of £20.9m, leaving a revenue budget of £457m. More than 1,000 jobs have been cut from the 22,000-strong workforce, with a further 250 vacant posts deleted. Another 400 jobs are expected to go in coming years.

Coun Watts Stelling, leader of the Durham Independents – now the council’s main opposition, said his members would scrutinise Labour, supporting “good decisions” and questioning “bad”.