A MONMOUTHSHIRE councillor says the local authority has been 'trimming' for years to retain services but now needs the help of residents to help find ways of maintaining services and save £13.5 million over the next four years.

Around 50 members of the public attended a budget consultation meeting at Caldicot Leisure Centre on Thursday to share ideas on how to find an extra £2.2 million this coming year.

Cllr Phil Murphy, cabinet member for finance, said: "We have been trimming for years. We've got to the stage where we hardly have staff left - we have the lowest ratio of staff to population in any county in Wales.

We are down to the stage now when we really have to look and say are we going to keep the service going.

if we are we need to look at how we are going to provide this - will it be in conjunction with another authority?"

Community hubs are one of the ideas put forward to pool various services such as libraries and youth services into one building.

The council have estimated that it costs £249,679 to run Caldicot Library for a year, £452,783 to run the town's leisure centre and £1,5,180 per pupil at Caldicot School.

They have also said that each house costs £140 to collect waste for a year and £.1,864 to maintain a kilometre of road in the town.

Cllr Peter Fox "We have provisioned for 4.5 per cent cuts, the scenario maybe a tad better it maybe a tad worse."

He said councils across Wales expect to rind fund on Wednesday what the exact percentage of cuts from the Welsh Government will be for this coming year.

When asked about councillors high travel expenses Cllr Fox said it was a fair challenge and would look into the possibility of pool cars for members.

He said: "Members share lifts when they can and I have used the pool car when I go to Llandudno which costs about £40 in diesel as opposed to claiming £I90 on expenses from my car."