COMMUNITY halls could close and rents for community groups rise as Basildon Council tries to slash £5.4million from its budget.

The council has confirmed it will review its 50 community halls and has not ruled out closing some as part of a bid to save £200,000.

A string of cuts have already been confirmed, saving £400,000 a year.

The cuts include scrapping the free rat and pest control service, locking parks at night, and investigations by the authority into contaminated land. Cemetery fees and collection cost of bulky waste items, such as fridges, will rise, while grants for community groups will drop and mechanical street cleaning will take place every six weeks instead of four.

The next review will also look at provision of day centres and meals for the elderly and a community transport scheme run with Essex County Council.

It is hoped at least a further £200,000 could be saved in the next round of savings.

Councillors will discuss the measures at the cabinet meeting next Wednesday.

The council has to find £5.4m savings by 2014/15.

Lynda Gordon, Basildon Labour group leader, hit out at the cuts.

She said: “All it can mean is privatising or selling off the community halls. It was a case of when, not if, they would review the community halls."

Council leader Tony Ball said the changes would protect priority services.

He said: “There are a number of areas where we believe we can improve value for money that we have identified for review.

“These are examples of our managed approach, working with stakeholders to see if savings can be achieved.

“We have to make changes. We are proposing to increase some charges and introduce a few new ones. Importantly, these are either in line with, or lower than, what other authorities charge.”

He said the new fee for five bulky waste items was £10 when others charge up to £51.

The appointments committee meets in private on Tuesday to discuss reducing senior council management, due to pending retirements – a move expected to save £300,000.