Plans include cutting 6,000 jobs and reducing opening hours at the new Library of Birmingham to make £300m savings

Birmingham city council, the UK’s largest authority, has announced plans to cut a further 6,000 jobs and reduce a wide range of services to make savings of more than £300m.

The council announced that by the 2017/18 financial year it expected its workforce to be down to 7,000 compared with 20,000 in 2010.

Among the proposed cuts is a dramatic reduction in opening hours for the Library of Birmingham, which welcomed its first users with a fanfare a year ago. The plan is for it to open for 40 hours a week rather than the current 73.

The council’s budget white paper also contains plans to cut the number of football and cricket pitches it operates and to look at disposing of some playing fields. Council funding for popular events ranging from the St Patrick’s Day parade to the Handsworth carnival would be halted. There are also proposals to charge for parking at beauty spots.

Sir Albert Bore, the leader of the Labour-run council, said: “We now need to make £117m of savings next year, rising to £338m by 2017/18, although we do not yet know what the full implications of the chancellor’s autumn statement will be. This is on top of the £462m we have had to save so far.”

The council is committed to investing extra money in its services to protect children following a series of abuse cases, but Bore described the consequences of the cuts as “quite dire”. He said most citizens had probably not seen the effects of cuts so far but would now.

He said: “The speed of the cuts in government funding is seriously hampering our attempts to plan for the future and this year is the most difficult we have faced so far.”

About 100 of the 188 staff at the £189m library, which houses one of the world’s largest Shakespeare-related collections, would lose their jobs under the plans.

Penny Holbrook, Birmingham city councils cabinet member for skills, learning and culture, said: “It is with a heavy heart that we go out to consultation on budget cuts for the Library of Birmingham, that could impact on opening hours, staffing numbers and the variety of services offered.

“We are proud of the building and the warm welcome it has received locally, nationally and internationally since opening in September 2013.

“However, the financial position of the library leaves us with no other feasible option but to put forward these proposals.

It is important the public understand the pressures we face from the costs of building the library.”

Bore said the Library of Birmingham’s debt repayments stood at £1m a month and the authority was undergoing profound change in the face of government funding cuts.

Live monitoring of CCTV footage from hundreds of council-run cameras around the city would also cease except in emergencies, although images would still be recorded. Funding reductions meant the council had already cut to the bone and was now “scraping away” at the bones themselves, Bore claimed.

He said: “The government’s approach to distributing the cuts means that those authorities with the greatest levels of need are facing the largest percentage cuts.

“Protecting the most vulnerable of our citizens, in particular children, is our top priority and we intend to invest a further £19.9m in child protection services from next year.”

The announcement comes as a review of the council ordered after the Trojan Horse scandal concluded the authority must make fundamental changes if it is to improve life for its most vulnerable citizens and once again become an economic powerhouse.

The review, carried out following the revelation of a plot by hardline Islamist extremists to infiltrate schools, recommends changes to the way the local authority is structured and run.

Headed by the former head of the civil service, Sir Bob Kerslake, the review concludes: “The council must lead a process of fundamental change. It cannot continue to do more of the same and expect something different to happen.”

It says the council – which has been heavily criticised for its poor children’s services – needs a more positive attitude. “Birmingham city council too often sees itself as a victim,” it adds.

Council leaders accepted much of the thrust of the report but expressed concern that inherent in many of the recommendations was the “presumption that the people of Birmingham and their city council should be instructed on local affairs from Whitehall”.

In its response the council said: “We are pleased the report recognises that Birmingham is a great city with a proud past and with the potential to be at the heart of the most potent regional economic powerhouse of the future.”

It said it was disappointed that while raising concerns about Birmingham’s finances, the report did not explicitly recognise the “impending financial crisis in local public services across the country”.

The council added it was not keen on the idea of an independent improvement panel being set up. “We are already working constructively on all the issues in this report and have serious concerns about our capacity to engage effectively with yet another set of external advisers,” it said.