STARK decisions could be ahead if Teignbridge is to weather the 'economic tsunami' expected to hit the district in waves over the next few years.

Teignbridge Council leader Alan Connett (pictured right) said the council had to tighten its belt so it would be in a better position to face the economic backlash from the global downturn.

Yesterday at a meeting of the overview and scrutiny committee, Cllr Connett said the council planned to make £919,000 in savings, with more than half of this coming from reduced staff costs.

He explained: "We have to rein in our belts. There's a national economic tsunami and in the next few years these waves will come rolling in and we can stay playing on the beach or we can move to higher ground."

He said the aim of the budget was to maintain frontline services.

He proposed that Teignbridge Council continues to support the Exe Estuary Partnership but with reduced funding of £6,000 per annum; capital funding for rural aid be removed and replaced with a cash injection of £55,000 from revenue funds; and councillors keep their full allowance of £1,500 to fund small projects in their wards.

Some jobs and council worker perks, including car allowances, have also been proposed as cutbacks.

The council has previously estimated between 10 and 20 redundancies will be made in management to save costs, but further redundancies were not ruled out. Cllr Jeremy Christophers said: "With a depleted crew, are we going to keep our heads above water with the Local Development Plan which has been a big financial drain?"

Cllr Connett said 'huge costs' associated with the LDF were not unique to Teignbridge and the district had no choice but to produce a plan or the Government would do it for them.

Options put forward for the budget plan include freezing council tax and parking charges; increasing council tax by 1.99 per cent and parking charges by three per cent; or raising council tax by 3.5 per cent and car parking charges by five per cent. Final budget decisions will be made at a meeting of the executive today.