More than £28 million in cuts and savings could be made in Slough Borough Council’s budget next year – with changes to council tax, library services and parking charges already pencilled in.

A first public draft of the council’s budget published on Monday, November 11, says the council has already found £10.78 million worth of savings. But it says it still has to find £17.35 more before January.

A council report on the draft budget says the cash-strapped authority faces financial challenges of ‘an unprecedented magnitude’.

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It says that as Slough is ‘one of the smallest unitary councils in England’ it doesn’t get enough funding to survive without having to take ‘radical action’.

Slough Borough Council’s cabinet – its group of leading councillors – is set to approve a draft of some £10 million in cuts and savings in next year’s budget at a cabinet meeting on Monday, November 18.

Proposed measures include a £60,000 ‘service reduction’ funding cut to library services in the children’s services department.

The plans also suggest the council hopes to raise £100,000 through a rollout of parking controls and 20 miles per hour speed limits. And it suggests it could earn £50,000 from hiring out parks and town centres for commercial events.

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The Observer has asked for more information on all of those proposed measures.

The draft budget also says its predicted funding is based on an assumption that it will increase council tax by the maximum of 4.99 per cent.

This is lower than in the previous two years, when it got permission from the government to raise it by 8.5 per cent in 2024 and 10 per cent in 2023.

However plans are also in the works to cut council tax discounts for low-income households. This will cost the poorest households up to £468 a year, but raise some £1.7 million for the council.

Commissioners sent in by the government to oversee the council after it went effectively bankrupt in 2021 said even more cuts will ‘essential’ for the council to ‘live within its means’.

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The draft budget still leaves the council £17 million short of what it says it expects to spend next year.

Commissioners said the shortfall in the current draft budget would mean more borrowing, and relying on shrinking pots of reserve funding used to cover unexpected spending.

The commissioners said: “There remains a significant challenge ahead. The council’s projected budget deficit remains substantial, assumes additional borrowing and the level of usable reserves available as a cushion is reducing.”

Another raft of cuts is set to be presented to council leaders in January next year. The final budget will be voted on at a special meeting of all councillors in February.