People across Shropshire will be asked what cuts should be made as part of a council drive to achieve nearly £60 million budget savings over the next three years.

Shropshire Council chief executive Kim Ryley and members of Shropshire Council’s cabinet will give presentations at local joint committees over the next six to eight weeks during a fact-finding mission to discover people’s priorities.

Plans are already being made in Craven Arms for a large-scale public meeting on September 30 and leaflets will be distributed to homes urging people to attend.

Town and parish councils have been told they will need to take on greater responsibility for providing local services, after it emerged some authorities have been applying for funding from local joint committees. It is also believed while the budgets for local joint committees could be increased, the number of committees will be reduced.

Martin-Taylor Smith, Shropshire Council’s portfolio holder for strategic planning and transport and a member of the authority’s transition board set up to deal with the cuts, said town and parish councils would have to “step up” in order to preserve services such as public toilets and publicly-owned car parks.

He said in Ludlow alone four different organisations cut the grass on the road-side in Sheet Road and added the town was one of the only market towns in Shropshire not to maintain its own public toilets.

Earlier this week it was revealed Shropshire Council would need to make £10 million savings for its budget for the current financial year and an additional £47 million over the next three years.

Councillor Taylor-Smith, who is also the ward member for Ludlow South, said the full extent of the cuts would not be known until September but urged people to make their views known. He added Shirehall chiefs were looking closely at any internal savings that could be made.

He said: “As part of this process all local joint committees will have officers or cabinet members visiting them in the next six to eight weeks. Council chief executive Kim Ryley will be attending Ludlow LJC and giving a presentation. We have to consider what services could be best done by town and parish councils.”

By Peter Kitchen