THE REALITY is beginning to sink in. After months of talking and figures being bandied around, the gravity of the situation is becoming apparent. The cuts will be big and widespread.

The long-awaited report on Dorset County Council’s financial situation was published yesterday and goes to councillors on the cabinet next week. There will be tough and unpalatable decisions.

The paper, written by chief executive David Jenkins and chief financial officer Paul Kent, says the level of savings the council needs to make means it will be impossible to protect all frontline services.

What has became clear very quickly is that some of Dorset’s most vulnerable residents including the elderly, families and people with physical, mental and learning difficulties, could be among the hardest hit.

Libraries, roads, museums, the careers service for 16-19 year olds, street lighting, trading standards and council ‘back office’ staff are also facing cuts.

The authority needs to save between £15-£20 million in the next financial year in addition to £10m worth of efficiencies already identified for 2011/2012.

Around 500 county council jobs could be lost in the next financial year, with ‘substantial expenditure for redundancy compensation payments’ needed.

Overall, the council’s budget would fall by 8.9 per cent to £227.7m.

But it’s only the start of what’s likely to be a three-year savings programme with more spending cuts needed up to 2014 – possibly as much as £26m.

There will be a freeze in council tax next year.

The report suggests that the axe could fall on some day centres for the elderly, on libraries, and in support to families.

Support to the voluntary sector groups in the area of children’s services could be cut too, along with a reduction in expenditure on co-ordination of after-school, holiday, homework and breakfast clubs.

Another controversial area likely to be affected is support to adults with physical, mental and learning difficulties. The report says: “This is the area where there is greatest scope for significant savings.”

Day centres for this client group could be hit and subsidies for transport and hot meals withdrawn – the latter saving £483,000.

In Adult and Community Services more generally, the paper acknowledges there is growing demand across learning disability services and residential care for older people. But closing some day centres could save £861,000.

There may be additional scrutiny of all care packages, all contract agreements with service providers may be revised and all liabilities for new service users challenged.

In Cultural Services, there may be cuts to staff supporting museums, arts and sports grants and reduction in grants to museums.

The report says maintaining a network of 34 libraries ‘is no longer affordable’ and that one proposal is to retain a core council-run service while transferring up to half the libraries to communities to run themselves. Stopping spending on some libraries would save £578,300.

But offloading some libraries to local community is not a quick or easy option – ‘very difficult to achieve in any realistic timescale’, says the report.

Cuts in the number of trading standards officers are likely to impact on food safety issues, criminal investigations and action on tackling rogue traders.

Included in the highway proposals are plans to cut back on routine road maintenance on the least used parts of the network (saving £770,000); turning off street lights and transferring responsibility for some school crossing patrols to community and school volunteers (£200,000).

On road safety, the focus of expenditure is set to be on the No Excuse campaign, with a 28 per cent reduction in funding to the Dorset Road Safe Partnership – which operates the speed cameras.

Some £9m of savings from the capital programme have yet to be identified as they council bids to trim £15m from its building projects.

Borrowing costs on capital investment are estimated at just under £19m next year and could rise to more than £25m by 2013/14.

The proposed cuts will be discussed by the council’s cabinet next week and then go out for public consultation on local communities. The report says there will need to be ‘a shift in the traditional relationships between citizen and state, along the lines of the Big Society’.

As a reminder of the gravity of the situation and the need to make cuts, the report adds the consultation ‘will not aim to measure the popularity of the proposals’ but to ensure implementation is successful. Wholesale changes are likely to come in one go, with the Mr Jenkins and Mr Kent spelling out the need to be up-front with residents and staff on the scale of the changes required.

“Our communities and staff deserve as much clarity as soon as possible and this can best be achieve by a single major change programme rather than having repeated changes year on year, with the uncertainties that generates.”

All councils ware waiting to hear how much cash they will get from the government for next year. The announcement is due next week.