THE city council's Green group is calling for people power to make good the local authority's £700,000 budget shortfall.

With councillors looking to make cuts and increase council tax, the Greens have called on the public and town hall workers to point out where the council is needlessly throwing money away.

They want the people who actually carry out the vital work of the council to highlight where savings can be made and they have promised anonymity to anyone who offers advice. The council's financial mess has been blamed on the previous Labour administration and the Green's deputy leader, Gina Dowding, said: "We want to avoid cuts in basic services and avoid a steep rise in council tax but this is going to be difficult to achieve. We have identified some savings, such as not buying the mayor a brand new car and we hope that other groups can be persuaded to abandon plans for an expensive new tennis centre.

"However, local people can help us by pointing to simple ways in which they think the council can save money. This could be as simple as using both sides of a sheet of paper when printing documents."

She added: "This is a desperate situation. Labour increased spending in the run up to last year's elections, whilst freezing the council tax at 1998 levels. Now the new council has to sort it out. We must find other ways of balancing the budget."

Anyone who help the Green group in their attempts to bring the council's finances back under control should contact Gina Dowding on 841645 or Jon Barry on 844113.

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