OPPOSITION councillors have described proposals to cut £43 million from Bolton Council’s budget before 2017 as “horrendous” and “extremely challenging”.

The Conservative, Liberal Democrat and UKIP group were briefed on the ruling Labour’s plans to axe hundreds of jobs by reducing administration roles, sharing services with other councils and depending more on volunteers.

Today (MON), the proposals will be put to the council’s cabinet, before being sent out to staff and public consultation.

Cllr David Greenhalgh, leader of the Conservative group, said they had lobbied the government for less cuts to local government, but the scale of the country’s economic problems meant savings had to be found somewhere.

He said: “It is an extremely challenging budget for us.

“Although we support the need for the deficit reduction and the economic plan that George Osborne is following, we do think local authorities have been disproportionately hit, particularly the northern metropolitans councils.

“However, we do think the officers have come up with some measures that are worthwhile — starting to share services with neighbouring authorities is something we have advocated for a while.

“There are some things we have real concerns about and we will bring amendments and alternatives to them in our budget.

“It sounds harsh when we lose some services, but a lot of charities provide similar services and it is important that the public realises roles performed by the council — for example within the environmental or youth work — is not a statutory requirement, but something they have chosen to do.”

Cllr Roger Hayes, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said the whole proposals were “horrendous”.

He said: “The point to make is that nobody is forecasting any significant difference regardless of the General Election.

“I think it means realism is coming. The country is in a massive mess and anybody pretending there were magic ways to fix it was deluding themselves.

“I have always said that local government has been asked to take more of its fair share of the pain, and I think Eric Pickles, the secretary of state for local government, is very pleased to continue offering that up.

“It’s right to protect the vulnerable and reduce the gap — and there’s been some success in doing that — but we have to make sure it is reduced by bringing the lower standard up, rather than the top standard down.”

Cllr Diane Parkinson, the leader of the UKIP council group, said her party would urge the authority to freeze council tax.

She said: “As far as moving into the Town Hall and leasing out other buildings, this is going to generate money for the council.

“But we need to be careful how we do things – in the past the council has been far too keen to sell off property or valuable assets of the town.

“I would want to know more details of how this budget process is scrutinised and how we put this together.

“I would look at freezing council tax, it can’t go up anymore. That would be outrageous.

“Our council tax collection is not working at the moment, as the council is losing millions each year. If the money is not being collected, where else is money being wasted?”