AMBITIOUS transformation plans for the royal district services were defended by the head of the council as not being a “Trojan horse” for the cuts.

Covid-19 has prompted senior Tory advisers to endorse the Draft Transformation Strategy 2020-2025, which rethinks the way the council delivers its services, such as adult social care, using community groups and volunteers as well as ‘using emerging technologies.

It is also undergoing a “culture shift” to “empower” staff to be leaders and transform the way they do their jobs.

However, opposition advisers criticized the transformation program as a pretext to cut services in order to save millions of pounds.

READ MORE: Windsor & Maidenhead board services are changing as we know it – here’s why

Speaking at a business presentation and review panel on Monday, November 29, Cllr Simon Werner (Pinkneys Green), the leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: “We see budget documents in which we’re going to reduce that amount of that service and we’re going to transform it to match the amount of money we’re hoping to get out of it.

“It seems to be completely the wrong way round. We should have the transformation leading to the cuts rather than the cuts deciding the transformation.

The opposition says there is a target of savings of £ 1.2million from the transformation.

The next day, at a subcommittee on cabinet transformation, board chief Andrew Johnson (Con: Hurley & Walthams) denied that it was a “Trojan horse” for the cuts and said insisted that he was proposing a “more innovative thinking” in the way the council delivers its services.

READ MORE: Windsor & Maidenhead could see Big Brother-style home tech rolled out

Meanwhile, senior member of Adult Social Services Cllr Stuart Carroll (Con: Boyn Hill) said it was “lazy policy” to call transformation as another word for the cuts.

He said: “We are looking to implement a transformation to improve the results, the quality and those services that we often provide to very vulnerable people, and we have the responsibility and the duty to do it because if we don’t. don’t, we ‘You won’t be able to use some of the advancements, whether in technology, best practices, or best advice, to get there. ”

Transformation and finance officials disagreed that cuts decide transformation and that it was more about delivering services differently and in a better way while saving money.

Adele Taylor, CFO, said: “To be very clear, when there’s a transformation in our budget proposals, it’s about service transformation, and it’s not that we are looking for savings just by looking for savings. the transformation.