Newly appointed Essex County Council leader David Finch took part in a live webchat with Chronicle readers on Thursday.
The county faces a financially straitened few years amid attempts to save £215million by 2016/17, something acknowledged by the councillor himself in immediately following his election.
Members have taken a three per cut in allowances but council services are likely to bear the brunt of cuts
Top of the agenda during the live chat was the state of the county's roads.
Cllr Finch described them as "a priority".
"We have invested an additional £35m over the next two years as well as an additional £11m last year.
"Our budget over the next four years for highways is over £180m.
"We have fixed 55,000 potholes in 12/13 and this additional money will fix even more. The state of our roads was severely impacted by the exceptional winter weather."
Cllr Finch was non-committal when it came to the particular services that would be affected by cost savings.
He said: "The £215m that needs to be saved is a result of reductions in government funding, inflation and demand pressures on older people services.
"Our Transformation programme aims to find ways of delivering savings in a way that protects critical front line services but we recognise that there may be some difficult decisions and choices to be made in the future."Which services do you think should be safeguarded from cuts? Comment below and vote in our poll (see right)Read the full chat below
