STARK warnings have been issued about the borough’s future after the council dramatically announced its cuts estimate had doubled to £65 million.

Leading councillors said they could not guarantee that frontline services such as street cleaning, schools and social services would not be affected when they agreed the first wave of savings.

But the moves approved on Tuesday, which include a restructuring of town hall senior management and the loss of up to 100 jobs, will only save the authority £2 million.

Council leader Chris Robbins admitted the authority’s original savings estimate of £30 million had been revised after the Government released further details of its squeeze on public spending.

Calling on the Labour leadership to do more to fight the cuts, Unions said the savings were “already beginning to bite” and would have a devastating effect on the community

Dave Knight, branch secretary of Unison Waltham Forest, told councillors that planned cuts would result “in a wholesale decimation of our local community”.

Campaigners say the modest first wave of cuts will inevitably impact on the quality of services.

Concerns have also been raised that a reduction in administrative staff would put vulnerable children at risk because social workers would have to spend more time on paperwork.

Staff say the careers services workforce will be slashed by up to 40 per cent and thousands of young people will not receive support to find a job at a time of high unemployment.

But cabinet members say the cuts are unavoidable and criticised the Government’s decision to slash budgets quickly.

Councillor Afzal Akram, cabinet member for corporate services, said: “No Labour council wants to make these cuts and these are difficult decisions to make.

“But if we don’t take decisive action the council will go bankrupt, which means each and every person will be made redundant – not just a few select members of staff.”

There were heated exchanges before the meeting as protesters from the Waltham Forest Anti-Cuts Union confronted councillors over the plans on Tuesday night.

Nancy Taaffe, co-ordinator of the Anti-Cuts group, said: “We want this Labour council to protect our public services and join us.

“People say things can’t get any worse but believe me, things can get much, much worse.”

Conservative opposition leader Matt Davis poured scorn on the council leadership’s criticism of the Government.

He said: “It’s amazing that for 13 years at this council nothing was ever the Government’s fault and now everything is.

“It was 13 years of their Labour Government’s insanely profligate spending that caused this problem in the first place.”

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