Agenda item

Councillor Charles Gerrish, Cabinet Member for Resources and Efficiency made a statement to the meeting. He said;

“Last November I attended a number of parish forums and went through the headline details of some of the budget proposals. However in the Autumn, although initially encouraging, the Chancellor’s statement proved far from the case, and when the settlement was announced in December, it showed a reduction in Government funding of somewhere in the region of £3.6m on what had been expected. It means that the overall shortfall for 2016/17 will be £12m. A lot of that £12m had been addressed prior to November, but an extra £3.6m at the last minute on top of that was somewhat more than we had hoped. A new management and service review will be completed by the Autumn to deliver a further £2.2m of savings, whilst in the short term reserves will be utilised until these savings are delivered, the target for that being 1^st October. Additionally funding has been provided totalling £360k for the mayoral referendum.

Councillor Warren and I visited the minister in London regarding the late change in the Government formula that led to the reduction. Transition funding was announced for two years. Due to its one-off nature, this extra funding cannot be used to support the base budget as it would cause further difficulties in subsequent years. As a result £749,000 will be used to provide temporary support for departments this year while they adapt to new ways of delivering services and providing contingencies for risk.

The budget does protect all essential services, children’s centres, maintains increased local youth services and environmental services, such as street cleaning and maintains the high quality of social care. To summarise, there will be a 2% adult social care precept plus a basic Council Tax rise of 1.25%, the first for 5 years, a rise that had been postponed with support from Government funding that is now finished. This is the smallest rise in the region, and we have also been able to make additional funds available for a welfare support fund for those who find the increase in Council Tax this year rather challenging.

£5m of savings have been achieved through increases in efficiency in service provision. There is £3m from new sources of income and £1m from more up-to-date calculations on the cost of growth and £1.4m from underspends and better than planned Heritage incomes, which has been built into the figures. I would like to highlight the following specific projects in parishes:

·  There will be support for a further year to adult advice and information centres before the Care Commission work leads to a total reformation.

·  £200,000 towards the Bath Enterprise Area and the new Enterprise Zone in the Somer Valley

·  An additional £0.5m for highways and infrastructure maintenance

·  £3m on LED street lighting, a further investment which will lead to a reduction in the cost of street lighting and further savings on energy use

·  Funds for bin replacement

·  £3.275 million towards an increase in the provision of affordable housing.

·  Substantial funds for investment in both Bath Quays and the new property company that has just been announced. This is designed to generate income either through additional business rates that the Bath Quays will generate or through rental income of the property company.

·  Specific investment in schools at St Mary’s and Writhlington, Farmborough Primary and Saltford Primary and further funding towards Peasedown Primary and Ubley Primary

·  £100,000 for highways structures between Belluton Narrows and Pensford in the coming year.  This might cause traffic difficulties for those who use that route, and I am advised that the detour for that route is substantial, but local people can half the length of the official detour.

·  Drainage funding for Chew Magna, Upper Swainswick and a further phase in West Harptree

·  Carriageway works on the A39 at Corston and Charlcombe Lane and a new road at Publow Lane in Pensford

·  Surface dressing at Paulton Road in Hallowtrow and Stockwood Lane in Keynsham

·  Improvements to the Bannerdown Road footpath, the Hallatrow roundabout and Harptree Cemetery

That’s just an illustration of the projects spread throughout the parishes in North East Somerset. All details are listed in the documents about the budget proposals on the Council’s website.”