Council reaches ‘breaking point’ in funding crisis
Authority reveals where axe may fall:
BRIDGEND County Borough Council has revealed where it is looking to make cutbacks next year as it faces a multi-millionpound funding shortage.
It launched its budget consultation on Monday, warning it was now reaching “breaking point” due to reduced funding from central government.
Residents are being asked whether they would be prepared to pay an extra 13.6% in council tax in 2020-21. The council says the increase would bring in an additional £10.7m and mean there would be no need for any service cuts.
The budget projections are based on an assumption that council tax will increase by 6.5% in 2020.
The proposed cuts affect services like street cleaning, CCTV, pest control, adult learning, education support services and community recycling centres, as well as events like the annual Elvis Festival in Porthcawl and the classic car show in Bridgend.
The council also wants to know how it should prioritise funding in the long term, asking residents whether it should only focus on services that support the most vulnerable or those that benefit everyone, and whether it should simply reduce all levels of service or charge residents for more services instead of losing them.
Council leader Huw David said: “We have already made multi-millionpound savings as we account for huge slashes in the funding we receive and have done everything we can to prevent residents from having to experience the full impact of cuts that have been widely reported elsewhere in the UK.
“The coming year is going to be the toughest yet and there are no easy options to save millions of pounds.
“Until central government decides to stop pummelling local government and instead provides us with adequate funding to provide the services that our residents deserve, we will have to keep making some of the hardest decisions that we have ever faced in order to set a balanced budget which meets our legal responsibilities.
“If one service is prioritised it means that another service has to lose out, so we need local people to work with us and tell us which services they want us to protect.”
Here we look at some of the proposed cuts: CCTV The council could stop providing CCTV services.
There are currently 92 cameras across the county set up to watch traffic and help prevent crime.
The cost for rental, maintenance and staffing is around £372,000 a year.
Residents are being asked whether the council should stop providing the service completely or continue to fund it and make cuts elsewhere.
It warns removing the service may have negative impacts for community safety across the borough. Homelessness The council is looking to cut £100,000 – almost a fifth – of its housing budget which helps the homeless.
It points out that over the past three years there has been an 18% increase in people presenting themselves as homeless.
In 2018-19 some 1,322 households presented to the authority because they were homeless or threatened with homelessness – and the number is expected to increase. Pest control Currently BCBC provides a free pest control service when it comes to rats, mice, cockroaches and bedbugs.
It also treats other pests for a fee – fleas (£83) and wasps (£75).
The council could stop the service and instead direct residents to commercial companies to deal with pest control. Street cleaning Services could become reactive, meaning street cleaners would only deal with prioritised complaints about fly-tipping and bin-emptying rather than carry out regular cleaning.
The council warns this would have “a visible effect” across the county.
Street cleaning currently costs £1.3m per year. The proposed changes would save £270,000 a year. Community Recycling Centres There are currently three community recycling centres – Brynmenyn, Maesteg and Tythegston.
Under cost-cutting measures one could close, saving £100,000 a year – or each one could close for one weekday every week, saving £50,000 a year. Town-centre events Events like the Classic Car Show, Wartime Bridgend and CF31 street market are under threat, with the council looking to pull £23,000 from its special regeneration fund which helps support events like these. Strategic events The annual Elvis Festival in Porthcawl could lose £20,000 worth of support, while other events such as the Senior Open Golf Championships could lose out.
The council is proposing to cut its £40,000 strategic event fund, half of which goes on providing support services for the Elvis Festival like street cleaning, road closures and portable toilets. Pop-up business school The council could pull the plug on its £12,500 special regeneration fund which pays for a free two-week pop-up business school aimed at helping residents to set up their own businesses. Bridgend Business Forum Funding of £35,000 for the Bridgend Business Forum could end.
The forum, established in 2008, provides local businesspeople with an opportunity to meet new customers and suppliers, learn new skills, share best practice and keep up to date with issues that could affect their business.
As well as regular meetings, the forum delivers business skills workshops, networking events and the annual Bridgend Business Forum Awards. Adult community learning The council could end its £133,000 support to the adult community learning team, which works across the county helping adults overcome barriers that can prevent them reaching their potential.
Courses such as English, maths, holiday French, staying healthy and basic IT courses are currently taught across 20 venues.
The service, which costs £263,000, also includes a £130,000 grant.
Residents are being asked if the council should stop providing courses in the community, reduce the number of courses and save £65,000 a year, or continue to fund them as they are. Escorts on school taxis or minibuses The council could stop putting escorts on taxis and minibuses to primary schools that have fewer than eight pupils to save around £35,000 a year.
Some pupils are taken to school by taxi or minibus because they have a disability or are accessing alternative education arrangements.
At the moment the vehicles usually have an escort on board whose main role is to ensure pupils board and alight the vehicle safely and that they are safe during their journey to school.
The council says it believes that drivers can carry out the role effectively. Support staff for pupils with additional learning needs The number of support staff who provide one-toone support for children with additional learning needs in primary schools could be cut.
The council is proposing to cut £144,000 from the service, which currently costs £628,000 a year.
Rather than the council providing the support, it would instead give schools some of the money it uses to appoint their own support staff.
The council says this has already been successfully carried out in secondary schools. Support for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities The council is looking to cut back its funding for the cognition and learning service, which sees specialist staff working with the pupils in mainstream primary and secondary settings.
The service supports schools to ensure effective inclusion, achievement and progression of children and young people.
The council is reviewing the service, which costs
just over £300,000 a year, and could train staff in schools to deliver some of the services, helping save £61,000 a year. Digital services The council says it can save £130,000 a year by moving away from face-toface customer services interactions to more online services.
This would affect people reporting an environmental issue, council tax queries or any application that residents can currently call up about, email, contact over social media or see someone in the civic offices. Civic office appointments A drop-in service at the civic office which enables residents to speak to a customer service adviser at any time during normal workday hours could turn into an appointmentbased system to help save money. Council tax The current budget projections are based on an assumption that council tax will increase by 6.5% in 2020 – this would represent an average weekly increase of £1.84 per average Band D household.
The local authority warns the council tax could be further increased to protect services.
It asks residents what amount of council tax they would be prepared to pay, asking if people would be willing to pay an extra 13.6% in council tax so that no council services would need to be cut in 2020-21. Capital expenditure Residents are being asked to choose their top three areas – ranging from maintaining the current standard of road networks, investing in town-centre projects and upgrading outdoor sports facilities to make them suitable for community asset transfers, to sea defences, renewable energy schemes and school places.
The 2019-20 capital budget is currently £54.5m, which is made up of BCBC, Welsh Government and external grant funding. Community hubs The council says it can save £180,000 by developing a community hub model in four areas across the county. It says the hub would act as a central point within the local community providing access to community and neighbourhood activities including day services.
The hubs would not be for people with “very complex needs” due to their need for very specialist support and service. Personal alarm and mobile response services The council is looking to expand its personal alarm and mobile response services to the general public – and generate additional income of £150,000.
People signed up to the service use a “press button” pendant and sensors to alert a 24-hour monitoring centre, where a trained operator manages the appropriate response as required – it might include use of a response team or designated family, friends, carers or emergency services.
Currently more than 2,500 people receive the service from social services but the council is considering opening it up to residents not linked with social services who would be willing to pay around £40 a month for it. Generating income Should BCBC look at becoming involved in commercial investments to fund and protect frontline services?
The council points out that many local authorities in the UK have bought hotels or funded shopping centres and warehouses, with some also providing residents with their gas and electricity supply – putting the money these ventures produce back into funding public services.
In 2018 local councils across the UK spent £93m buying hotels, almost triple the amount they spent in 2017. They use lowinterest government loans to buy hotels and employ professionals to run them.
BCBC is asking residents whether, if it did decide to invest in commercial ventures, it should be within Bridgend county only, within surrounding areas, or if financial returns be prioritised over the location.
It points out that there would be risks with the type of investment.
BCBC also wants to know residents’ views on whether it should investigate the possibility of generating income by providing energy to its residents.
In the budget consultation document, BCBC’s deputy leader Hywel Williams said: “Since the UK entered the age of austerity, it has become increasingly difficult for local authorities to offer many of the non-statutory services that people have commonly looked towards councils to provide.
“Despite this, we are determined to provide high-quality essential services and ensure that we can continue to look after the most vulnerable among us.
“To achieve this as effectively as possible and ensure that we can reflect the views of local people as far as we are able to, we need as many residents as possible to support the consultation.
“We continue to recognise that there is an untapped resource of capacity, talent and ideas within the wider community and we will be encouraging and working alongside local people to help them play a more active role as the council evolves and changes its shape and scope
“By working with us and providing feedback on our budget proposals, you can help ensure that we are more than capable of meeting local needs in these increasingly difficult circumstances.”
To take part in the Shaping Bridgend’s Future consultation, visit bridgend.gov. uk/consultation or paper copies can be obtained by emailing consultation@bridgend. gov.uk or calling 01656 643664. The consultation closes on November 3.