Three flagship councils are asking local people to share their views on proposals to combine services, which will save £35 million per year by 2014/2015.

Hammersmith and Fulham Council, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster City councils are proposing to combine services as a way of protecting front line services at this difficult time.

The three flagship councils cabinets have agreed to support the proposals but are now inviting residents to give feedback before they meet again to discuss the issue in May. The focus of the proposals are children's services, adult care services, environmental services and corporate services, whilst cutting senior management, overhead and back office costs by up to half.

Councillor Colin Barrow, leader of Westminster City Council, said: "Our proposals to share services are driven by commonsense and the tough economic realities of the day. Every penny saved by our planned collaboration will help protect frontline services while local people across the three boroughs will not see any change in the way these services are delivered."

Councillor Sir Merrick Cockell, Leader of the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, said: “These challenging financial times require a bold response. If implemented, our proposals would see a far greater share of our resources going to the frontline rather than back office or support costs. The protection of localism, local decision making and accountability is implicit in everything set out. We look forward to receiving feedback on these proposals from across our communities.”

Councillor Stephen Greenhalgh, Leader of Hammersmith & Fulham Council, said: “Combining services means we can cut back office cost and redirect more of the funding we have into frontline services in each of the three slimmer councils. It also means we can share expertise across three of the best councils in the country to bring real innovation to our three local town halls.”

For more details on the proposals and to have your say go to

www.westminster.gov.uk/services/councilgovernmentanddemocracy/tri-borough-working-your-views

The deadline for responses is April 21 2011.