CUTS totalling £1.7m in South Oxfordshire District Council’s spending will see travel tokens axed, reduced maintenance of car parks and a pay freeze for some council workers.

Members of the council’s cabinet agreed the cuts as part of its £13m budget for 2011-12, which includes a freeze in its share of council tax.

The cuts came after the council suffered a 16 per cent reduction in its annual grant settlement from the Government, getting £6m instead of the expected £7.1m.

Travel tokens worth £20 a year for 3,100 disabled and elderly residents were axed.

Colin Walsh, a spokesman for the Transport for All campaign group, said: “Vulnerable people will be affected by this cut but I have high hopes that the district council will step in to make some sort of provision in the future.”

Ann Ducker, leader of the Conservative-run council, said she was sticking to her pledge, made in December, that frontline services would not be affected.

She said: “These are savings, but in terms of quality of life for people in South Oxfordshire I don’t think there will be any change.

“Unfortunately, we have had to make some staff redundant and have frozen salaries, but frontline services have been saved.

“The responsibility for travel tokens has now been taken over by the county council, but the administration cost for giving out £20-worth of tokens was greater than the value of the tokens, so it didn’t make sense.”

The maintenance bill for the mobile homes site at Foxhall Manor Park, Didcot, is being reduced from £23,000 to £20,000.

Mrs Ducker said a lot of money had been spent in recent years to bring the site up to a “good standard” and added there was no need to spend the same amount of money each year on its upkeep.

But Margaret Davies, leader of the council’s opposition Labour group, said people would be affected by the cuts.

She said: “This is trimming services at the edges, rather than slashing them, but residents will be affected.

“Fat trimming by the council sees the travel tokens option gone, charging parishes more for local elections, cutting car park maintenance, charging for planning advice, cutting the maintenance budget at Foxhall Manor Park and reducing the budget for temporary accommodation, at a time when they must know that there is likely to be greater need.”

David Buckle, joint chief executive of South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse councils, said staff numbers at the authorities had fallen from 530 to 430 over the past two years.

He said: “The staff are realistic about the situation the two councils find themselves in.

“Since 1990, the staff have received a pay increase in line with inflation, but a 3.1 per cent pay increase would not have chimed well with residents and would have meant further service cuts elsewhere or job losses.”

Last week, the two district councils announced a deal with trade union Unison that will save taxpayers nearly £650,000 a year. As part of the deal, staff earning more than £25,000-a-year will forego a pay rise this year.

A full meeting of South Oxfordshire District Council will be able to comment on the budget on Thursday.