BLAENAU Gwent Council must make cuts of £20 million in the next three years.

At a meeting of the corporate overview scrutiny committee on Monday, members were presented with a report of updated financial information in relation to the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) 2014 to 2020. The report will be presented to full council for approval next month, when it will announce where it will make cuts of £10 million for the next financial year.

In August, the Argus reported the council voted through phase 1 of the £10 million budget cuts, including new charges for waste collection, the closure of Nantyglo Sports Centre, 11 public conveniences and two civic amenity sites in Silent Valley and Bourneville, along with staff cuts, reduced hours in Meals on Wheels, changes to CCTV operation, and the remaining 25 per cent of homecare services to be outsourced, subject to the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) review of all council services.

The report was presented to the corporate overview scrutiny committee as part of the consultation process, where members are asked to consider and provide recommendations for amendments on the report, prior to approval by council.

Members asked for a more thorough breakdown of the figures to be provided to councillors before the decision making in December.

The report presented yesterday shows the council has to find savings of £10 million for the 2014/2015 financial year, £20 million for the period 2014/2015 to 2016/2017 and £36 million for the period 2014/2015 to 2019/2020.

It sets out a number of assumptions made by the council in order to calculate how they are going to achieve those savings. Among them is another council tax price hike of 4.6 per cent for 2014/2015 and 2015/2016.