Town's visitor centre to close to save money
LDRSA town's visitor information centre is to shut to cut costs, with two staff affected.
The Enjoy Stockton centre, which has about 15,000 visitors a year, is to close "as soon as is practical", according to Stockton Council.
It said the change would affect two full-time workers and there would be a 30-day consultation period to explore redeployment opportunities for the staff.
Council deputy leader Paul Rowling said the council was "making savings" where it could but acknowledged "some of these decisions are difficult".
"This is an ongoing piece of work, it's not really what a lot of people come into public service to do, to make savings," he said.
"We talked about how we can get low spends and the highest outcomes and I think there's evidence across the council of us really trying to achieve that."
The local authority said the closure would save £50,000 this year and £75,000 in future years, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
The cuts are part of the council's drive to save money over the next three years.
It is working to close a budget gap, predicted at £6.7m this year rising to £18.4m in 2028-9, and said it had already saved £9.9m.
It will also stop publishing newsletter Stockton News, as part of plans to save £83,000 each year by reducing printed materials to communicate with residents.
The authority said it would adopt a more digital first approach and use social media to communicate information.
The biggest cuts, expected to be £507,000 this year and £482,000 in each of the next two years, would come from a review of spending across the council including agency work, overtime, casual labour, mileage, recruitment, training, room hire, travel, callout, print and stationery, it said.
