Pitch-and-putt and tennis courts saved (From The Oxford Times)

Crazy golf, pitch-and-putt and tennis courts in Abingdon saved in Vale of White Horse District Council review of planned cuts

2:00pm Wednesday 16th February 2011 in News By Ben Wilkinson

Council leader Tony de Vere, right, with council member Richard Webber at the pitch-and-putt course

CRAZY golf, the pitch-and- putt course and tennis courts all look set to be saved in Abingdon in the face of cuts.

The leisure facilities were listed for the axe in £660,000 worth of cuts detailed in the Vale of White Horse District Council’s draft budget in the wake of a 16 per cent cut in Government funding.

Closing the facilities would have saved £9,000 a year running the ticket kiosk and maintaining the grounds.

Between April and September last year, 526 people used the pitch-and-putt course and 1,144 played crazy golf.

The council said it had found the money to save the facilities through recent “efficiency savings”.

Council tax is set to stay the same and the community grants budget to increase by £20,000 to £103,000.

Also saved are 25 recycling sites at supermarkets in the region, costing £28,000 a year.

But the pest control service will be axed to save £24,760, the council will charge for planning application advice, and charges for garden waste collection will increase to add £28,000 a year.

The council will also scrap three of five 20p-a-time ‘superloos, but plans to save those in Millbrook Square, Grove, and Hales Meadow, Abingdon, costing £30,000.

Tony de Vere, leader of the council, said a three-year-old partnership with South Oxfordshire District Council meant savings could be made in management and staffing.

He said: “The things we decided three years ago are starting to bear fruit. We had to look very hard and very constructively at how we can reduce our costs rather than cut services. It is a credit to all the staff.”

Last week, it was announced staff earning more than £25,000 a year would have their pay frozen to save taxpayers about £650,000 a year.

Budget changes came after public consultation.

Richard Webber, the council’s executive member for finance, said: “Opportunities to save arise from a whole series of things. Each of our nine or so departments all have different savings in progress. These things come through in a steady little trickle — some are predicted and some are not. But when you are setting a budget, you cannot assume that is going to happen.”

He added: “Really there is an absolutely minimum impact on frontline services and we are still able to find money to support the things we want to — that is a heck of an achievement.”

The full council will meet to rubber-stamp the recommendations at a public meeting on February 23.

Roger Cox, deputy leader of the Conservative opposition on the Liberal Democrat-controlled council, said the saved facilities were in Abingdon — a Liberal Democrat stronghold.

He said: “Jolly good for Abingdon. That is where the Lib Dem power base is, so they have saved the facilities where the people support them most. Fortunately for them, and unfortunately for us, the Lib Dems have joined with a very successful Conservative South Oxfordshire District Council.”