Local Councillor David Bill appears on BBC radio to speak about the financial challenges facing the Leicestershire County Council

Local Hinckley Councillor David Bill appeared on BBC radio earlier to speak about the financial challenges facing the Leicestershire County Council. He welcomed the Council's consultation but expressed concerns that it wouldn't truly get to grips with the scale of the challenges it faces.

You can listen to David's interview here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01bzn1d

His part starts just after 2:09:15

In addition to the interview, he's released the following statement:

"Consultation is the right way forward on all major decisions but the present financial crisis is so dire that it is unlikely that ideas coming forward will do much more than scratch the surface.

The economy appears to be picking up at long last but that cuts to local government funding and all other public funding looks set to continue to get deeper and to go on for much longer than originally expected.

It has been calculated that if matters stay as they are then the cost of adult social care alone will swallow up all local government income in a few years time. That is because we are all living longer and healthier as indeed we should.

There is a need for a fundamental new approach by the Government itself to bring together all public services, police, health, councils etc so that the available finance goes further in order to support the quality of life that we have all come to expect.

In Hinckley we are showing how this can be done by bringing all services under one roof, cutting costs all round and improving the level of service delivery".