Essex County Council is facing budget cuts of £30million next April as the authority’s austerity programme is set to continue.

But leading politicians are hopeful they will be able to freeze the county’s element of council tax bills for the fifth consecutive year.

Leading councillors and senior officers have been working on their proposed budget for several weeks, and it is due to be studied and debated by the authority’s scrutiny committees between now and the end of the year.

It will then be debated by the cabinet in January before being finally approved by the full county council in February.

Council leader David Finch said that the council had so far found savings of £450m over recent years, and needed to find a further £237m in savings during its current four year term.

However the age of austerity for local authorities was likely to continue until 2021 at least.

Many of the savings had come from efficiencies, especially in procurement which had saved £180m.

Mr Finch said: “Over the last 10 years Essex County Council has been increasing council tax below the rate of inflation – and for the last four years the increase has been zero. We are hoping to be able to continue that next year.”

Exact details of service changes would be thrashed out over the next few months, but the council’s commitment to look after adults needing care – especially older people – was likely to become an ever larger proportion of its budget.

One in five people in the county are now more than 65 years old – and the number of over-85s is likely to double over the next three to five years.

There is also a need to ensure there are contingencies in place in case severe weather forces the council to spend more on keeping roads open.

Last year it had to bear the cost of repairs after flooding, and this year there have been warnings that a harsh winter could be in store – although there is no indication what type of harsh weather might be on the way.

The county has also committed to keep all its 73 libraries open – although it could look at new ways of using them. They already share offices with borough and district councils in some towns – and this could be extended.

The county is also likely to look at reducing the subsidy it pays to some local bus services – although it will try to avoid causing hardship to those who rely on them to travel to the nearest town.